tv. somebody will say, i have a cable car house, nobody asked me. come take a look at it. because right now we're down to one or two maybe that are still around when we're talking about there used to be hundreds. >> essentially into a generation of tearing them down. no more construction. complete replacement. >> yeah. in the 1910, about 1913, 1914, they really started pushing to get rid of them. when that open block that sutro rented, right on the edge of the sunset, when that cleared out, it eliminated the visibility of carville. we talk about a whole block of car houses that were still there. when that gets replaced by apartment buildings, suddenly you have a car house here, one there. just where people haven't taken the time to tear it out or

build a conventional home. in the 1920's or 1930's, things were booming house building wise out there. so if you have a little empty lot that has an old car house on it you'd be stupid not to build a stucco house there and make a quick buck. by the 1920's, they're mostly gone. there's just a couple here and there. >> so, woody, sometimes the railroad seems to be finding old cars and rebuilding them. have -- are any of these actually rebuilt and used again? >> some of them they have saved because they've popped up now and then. like the ones on ninth avenue. those three cable car trailers. they were saved by ed zelinski who took them and donated them to the maritime museum. think one still sits in a warehouse waiting for somebody to do something with it. but other old cars have been rescued and taken to parks where they've been restored. there's one down in san jose in

kelly park. it's an old horse carrie stored that runs around on the weekend. -- car restored that runs around on the weekend. on the one hand, you're in this foggy neighborhood, there's not much insulation. on the other hand, you've got 30 windows, and the sunshine in the day could just make the place broiling. and at night all of those windows let in the cold. so they advised people to put up curtains. they'd have little oil lamps, coal stoves, little oil/coal stoves. but it was a challenge. it was sort of part of the romance i think. it's like camping. >> how long did the fad last? >> the height of it, this all really takes off around 1897, 1898. the height of it is really the turn of the century. 1900 we're talking about 200 cars. after the earthquake in 1906, that's when it starts declining a little bit because more conventional houses start taking over and more people live permanently year-around.

they're not just using it as a party pad. so it's after the quake it starts declining a little bit. >> is there a d.b.i. record as cable cars were moved to a site that there wou before the earthquake, you often don't have a record. then, yeah, you're right. it goes down to some of these pictures i found by basically finding the names of people who lived in carville and then tracking down their desendends and asking, do you have anything? we had people who said, yeah, lots of photos and stories. but it takes a lot of leg work. it's not like you can just walk into a city department and get

that info. >> i know you actively solicit the -- solicited people for stories. there's a wonderful newsletter what is it called? >> it's our organizational newsletter. >> it also has in it a mystery photograph that maybe somebody submitted. can you imagine where there is? tell us where it is. but also soliciting these histories of photographs and recollections. >> it's history groups. like we're a history group for the west side of town so we interview old-timers and get donations of photographs and stories. and there's other groups like that through the city. it's up to a lot of volunteers and people who care about the neighborhood to track this stuff down. >> so the question about house moving. house moving used to be very common in san francisco. i think you once were looking at that as well. is that right? >> well, we saved some earthquake shots. lawrence helped us get the pormeyit to move them. we pulled out the ledger, you know, with like the official city ledgeser of moving houses. there were tons of them. i don't know, at some point it just kind of petered out and

somebody moves a house like once every 15 years now. >> so we in our digital age, issue house moving permits once every couple of years. i pull out this little book. it's got a piece of carbon paper in it. you put the carbon in and you write, you know, house moving permit number, you know, 36. you say from here to there. we charge a fee. a very low fee. it's really right out of the turn of the century before. >> yeah, it has that dusty, old-school feeling. >> actually, we maintained that. i tried to maintain this little book. we still do it that way. >> would the post earthquake installation of building codes and building requirements have impacted carville to expand? and ultimately was that part of the demise as our desire and need to have structures that were earthquake safe and fire safe? did that have an impact on it,

i guess? >> well it seemed more that they were health issues. they were really not happy with the plumbing in carville. yeah. that shows up a lot more than anybody worried about building integrity or anything. the thing that comes up a little later and we talked a little about, these earthquake refugee cottages. after the 1906 earthquake, the relief corporation that was attending to these refugees built thousands of these small little redwood cottages for the refugees. then when the camps closed after a year, people could take the cottages to these empty lots and set them up. it was a far bigger outcry about whether those were appropriate and what the code would be because most of them weren't put on foundations. they were just dragged out to empty lots. they were combined together. sometimes lifted up off the ground even. so you'd find articles about that far more often than finding anybody having a problem with these cars which were actually pretty sturdy.

we talk about they're used as public transportation all the time. they're made of some hefty material. so people weren't too worried about them. at least it doesn't come up with the historical records. >> do we have any left? and how are we recognizing and preserving them? >> well, there's that one left that's great that we saw the interior of. and that is not a city landmark. the guy who owns it is very aware of its significance as maybe the last and best example of a carville house. he really wants to take care of it. i don't know if he would go forward with any landmark designation just because like a lot of homeowners he doesn't want to be at all boxed in with what he can do. but that's kind of where we are. i think it is a landmark. if anything had to come up, i would definitely nominate it as one. the other examples of carville houses, there's one on 47th avenue where the cars have been basically removed and all you've really got left is perhaps the floors of a couple of cars.

it was a great example until, i guess, the late 1950's. and whoever bought house decided to take out most of the woodwork. that might be the only one, the one on great highway. >> i mentioned one of the problems with plumbing with these carville homes. i was wondering at what point in history did outhouses become illegal in san francisco? >> i'm not sure of that. but outhouses were the big part of carville. you see these early shots. there are outhouses like right next door. >> i found out, when i moved to my current house, my house had been moved from the reservoir site at holly park to where it was. there was a woman, this was 20 years allege, who had seen the move. she was a kid. she described it coming on a wagon, pulled by a mule. it was basically being breaked by the mule. because it was coming down a hill. and that was just information in my neighborhood from a woman who had lived there for a long

time as a kid. and the time is getting further and further away from when these existed. but i think the best thing is humans. and maybe tchutch societies that have senior members. >> yeah. no, if you go to almost -- almost all of our members -- we're a nonprofit organization. so we have a whole membership program. almost all of our members are these kind of people you're talking about. people who grew up in the city, are getting on in years and have these memories. they point us to a lot of other people, people that maybe aren't on the internet who live in their neighborhood. we interview them. if you go to outsideland.org, you'll see some examples of the interviews we do of the feedback we get, of the messages that these seniors post. when we have an issue like we're trying to find out about earthquake cottages or carville, we do put out an all points bulletins to seniors who might have some relation to it, some memory of it. one reason we starteded this organization is the western

neighborhoods -- started this organization is the western neighborhoods are the newer neighborhoods in san francisco. the creation and development is in the living memory of a lot of people still. so we want to start this organization and capture those memories before those people are gone. >> it's a really, really neat thing i think they're history minutes? >> yeah. one-minute videos where we give a little history of some building or site or event. >> we're in seal rock. this used to be adolph sutro's estate. these weren't there then. >> ♪ in the richmond guess i ain't that cool ♪ >> when i was a kid, my father told me those were machine gun nests up there put in during world war ii to fend off japanese attackers. >> these two structures were build in 1943 by the u.s. army.

also, these were spotting positions for the big post artillery gun batteries. the stations would work together. say win here and one at fort funston. using telescopes, they named a ship and target. and the two different sightings allowed them to trianglely position the ship at sea. >> so it was a lookout, essentially >> it was a lookout. >> i doubt if we saw a japanese ship today -- >> it would probably say toyota on the side of it. >> they are really fun. if shows you what can you do in 60 seconds. >> the pri sidot maps. people -- presidio maps. people keep forgetting that the army was a major presence. before the city was

functioning, the army was functioning. and there are maps from the 1800's that show the farmhouses in the valley, the eureka valley, and mission district that were done by the army. so the army is its own resource for the history of the city before there was a building department. they would have everything. you could find out what was the original house in an area. again, this is the 1800's more than the 1900's. but the earthquake obliterated a lot of records. >> there's the survey map that the government did. that's a great resource to just kind of show -- you know, we saw that map on the grid pattern. they had that, like i said, on maps in 1968. but there's no streets yet. but the coast survey map will show you where there are streets put in and buildings sometimes. there's lots of great resources out there. >> that was terrific, woody.

thank you so much. >> i couldn't have enjoyed it more. [applause] >> we'll see you next >> but wae who is on the fence as a grand jury member to do so. as former supervisor and as mayor, it is equally valuable for people to participate as grand jury members -- to feel connected to the community in a meaningful way. this is a place where you can feel the kind of connection as a member of the grand jury, who is out there working in the interest of all san francisco's and holding in check members of our elected departments that need that kind of direction and advice from real people, not people with an ax to grind. not people with particular self-

interest, but people that want to make our city a better place. thank you for your inspiration. i am encouraged by the fact you have taken enough time to pay attention to this. i am hopeful that you participate in this process, which i assure you will have great meaning in your life. >> i am grateful for having had the experience of being on a civil grand jury, for the difference it has made for the city and in my own life, just being able to share the experiences i have had, to feel good about myself and what i have done for the citizens of this city. >> i found the grand jury rewarding because of the seriousness of the work and the prestige it gave me, the prestige of thing many of our elected officials, department heads, and many government employees work very -- were very kind in extending to us.

it was very exciting. >> what i found most gratifying was, first of all, being part of a group of 19 incredibly different san franciscans, with a different backgrounds, different amounts of education, all kinds of professions -- stay at home spouses -- it was a great mix. there were people i never would have met unless i had been part of that. the second thing that was incredibly interesting all year long were the investigations we were conducting with different agencies and departments of the city government. pulling together all of our different viewpoints in each of our presentations, and all our information and data -- we put that into a report. it was incredibly gratifying stuff. i guess the third gratifying thing was that in our particular year, 2000-2003, we

had a number of reports that really made a difference. >> the court is now accepting applications for the civil grand jury. this watchdog body is comprised of 19 citizens selected by my colleagues on the court. the grand jury is charged with conducting independent, confidential investigations of city departments, to insure these agencies are operating effectively and ethically. at the conclusion of its term, the grand jury publishes its reports and submits them to the presiding judge in to the departments that have been examined. departments have to respond to the findings of the grand jury and present their response at public hearings conducted by the board of supervisors. these hearings great public awareness and media attention for the challenges faced by city departments and provide a forum for civil dialogue to propose

solutions to issues confronting our government. reports about disaster preparedness, the department of building management, and the fire department have an influential effect on change in the improvement of city services. >> a new reports and valuable, not only as a mayor but as a member of the board of supervisors. poor me, it is always helpful to get a third set of eyes with someone else's perspective -- an objective perspective. grand jury reports provide that employee. i am someone that likes being challenged in terms of looking more critically at what we are doing in the city. i think grand jury reports provide the critical eye. i think the grand jury report that was most important from my perspective represented the first day i was in office as mayor. that was the report done years ago about the readiness of our disaster plans in san francisco.

one of the recommendations that was made was to update our emergency operations plans. there were a number of specific -- specific recommendations we have completed. the consequences -- we were in better shape from a planning perspective because of the grand jury and the work that was done in that report. >> the grand jury axe as a city watchdog to work that city agencies cannot be focusing on. over the years, and asking the tough questions that otherwise are not being asked. the civil grand jurors have the ability to ask questions of anything that they want within the city government. they get to ask the tough

probing questions that we need our citizens to be asking. >> to me, the best thing was the impact that was made on the knowledge of the city. >> one of the things that is mandated is to visit your jails. that was absolutely fascinated. all of the jurors went out into

the community and we observed a lot of precincts. it was a terrific observation. you get to meet most major officials including the mayor, members of the board of supervisors and their offices and department heads as well as having interviews with a variety of public and private sectors and many other agencies i don't know about. >> the followthrough was set for a particular concern to our grand jury. the toss grand jury reports have been given a great deal of initial support and attention

and it will not always follow through. this will allow future grand juries to track the project of support for key issue is. the mayor's office was very supportive of helping to develop this database and spreadsheet. >> we will begin to put things on line next year. we are improving our accountability. >> we have a very substantial debate about the reform.

there is a crisis in our pension system. in the jury, they take issues that for whatever reason, they're complicated. they do the analysis. at the board of supervisors, we hold hearings on the outcome of the findings of the reports. we can educate ourselves on the the good that we have done. >> i would say that the current board of supervisors seems to have an interest in implementing many of the issues that we raised. the future of the grand jury is very good. >> if you love the incredible community that we live then and we want to have a role in making it better and help serve the public. i cannot think it better way to

do this than to serve the grand jury. >> we all do what we have come to do continuity. continuity is making sure that any recommendations have been considered publicly. >> you think it is over there are ramifications for all of the hard work you have done. >> hello. the court is now recruiting specific grand jurors. we're looking to have a pool of candidates. >> we want to provide a broad

range of points on the civil grand jury. >> if you would like to work with others and it is yes dick citizens, i encourage you to consider applying for service on the civil grand jury.