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

there are so many ways that the internet provides real access to real people and resources and that's what we're try to go accomplish. >> i was interested in technology like video production. it's interesting, you get to create your own work and it reflects what you feel about saying things so it gives perspective on issues. >> we work really hard to develop very in depth content, but if they don't have a venue, they do not have a way to show us, then this work is only staying here inside and nobody knows the brilliance and the amazing work that the students are doing. >> the term has changed over time from a very basic who has a computer and who doesn't have a computer to now who has access to the internet, especially high speed internet, as well as the skills and the

knowledge to use those tools effectively. . >> the city is charged with coming up with digital inclusion. the department of telecommunications put together a 15 member san francisco tech connect task force. we want the digital inclusion program to make sure we address the needs of underserved vulnerable communities, not communities that are already very tech savvy. we are here to provide a, b and c to the seniors. a stands for access. b stands for basic skills and c stands for content. and unless we have all three, the monolingual chinese seniors are never going to be able to use the computer or the internet. >> a lot of the barrier is knowledge. people don't know that these computers are available to them, plus they don't know what is useful. >> there are so many businesses in the bay area that are constantly retiring their computer equipment that's

perfectly good for home use. computers and internet access are helping everybody in the community and people who don't have it can come to us to help with that. one of the biggest problems we see isn't whether people can get computers through programs like ours, but whether they can understand why they need a computer. really the biggest issue we are facing today is helping people understand the value of having a computer. >> immediately they would say can i afford a computer? i don't speak any english. how do i use it. then they will start to learn how to do email or how to go back to chinese newspaper to read all the chinese newspaper. >> a lot of the barrier still is around lack of knowledge or confusion or intimidation and not having people in their peer network who use computers in their lives. >> the important thing i learned from caminos was to improve myself personally. when i first came to caminos, i didn't know anything about

computers. the second thing is i have become -- i have made some great achievements as an individual in my family and in things of the world. >> it's a real issue of self-empowerment where new immigrant families are able to communicate with their families at home, able to receive news and information in their own home language, really become more and more connected with the world as well as connected even inside their local communities. >> if we value the diversity of our city and we value our diverse neighborhoods in the city, we need to ensure that they remain economically viable. equiping them and equiping residents in those areas with jobs that will enable them to stay in san francisco is critical to that. >> the important thing that i see here at caminos is it helps the low income community, it helps the women who wouldn't have this opportunity otherwise. >> the workers with more education in san francisco are

more likely to be able to working that knowledge sector. where they are going to need that familiarity with the internet, they are going to find value with it and use it and be productive with it every day. and half of the city's population that's in the other boat is disconnected from all that potential prosperity. >> we really need to promote content and provide applications that are really relevant to people's lives here. so a lot of the inspiration, especially among the immigrant community, we see is communications with people from their home country but we as much want to use the internet as a tool for people to connect within the local san francisco community. >> i think it's our job as public educators to give them this access and give them this opportunity to see that their efforts are being appreciated beyond their immediate reach. >> you have to blend this idea of community network with computer equipment with training and with support. we can pull all that together,

then we've got it. >> it's as much about social and economic justice -- in fact it's more about social and economic justice than just >> good afternoon. i'm the chief building inspector with the department building inspection. welcome to our brown bag lunch series. this is the regular third thursday of every month event. we are finishing up with a talk about the outside lambs, an area that was previously considered uninhabitable. uninhabitable due to fog. [inaudible]

but we have with us a couple of real experts in outside plans. -- i am outside -- in outside lands. woody has devoted a lot of his time and effort to the outside lands. >> we are a nonprofit in our 10th year, and we are dedicated to preserving and sharing the history of san francisco. >> it is great to have you here. and pat, who has a lot of knowledge and brought to be sure today a lot of [inaudible] , and she can share with that -- she can share that with us as well, and we only regret that harvey the wonder dog could not be here. we talked about [inaudible] what area, generally, are we

talking about? >> the term came from what was called the pueblo land when the san francisco peninsula was switched over from mexican ownership to american ownership. certain tracts were preserved, so there was a more orderly, even though it took decades, transfer of ownership of those lands, but there were also what were called pueblo lands, which were sort of a poem by the town, and then, there was a whole lot of discussion about what should happen to those -- which were sort of zero and -- sort of owned by the town. >> so was san francisco's bordered upon at the time, or did that happen later?

>> san mateo county did not exist when they originally chartered it. i think there were 16 counties, and a few years later, they said they were too large, so they doubled back and created san mateo county. >> this is an early map of an area that might have been known as san francisco, but it did not have a defined southern boundary yet. >> the city i believe was up larkin street, and everything west was counties. i think larkin was here. that is the original charter. then in 1850, van ness, who was the supervisor, did the addition. it was called the western addition, even though it was in the middle of the city, because it was west of larkin.

>> i did not understand that when i was a child. it always seemed that it was east of where everything i knew was. >> all this down here was county of san francisco, so there was a point in time where you could be in the county of san francisco, but not in the city you live in these outside lands. >> lead problem is if you look at the orientation, no. is up. we are going to turn it the way we are normally accustomed to seeing it. here is where the golden gate bridge is. here is where the bay bridge is. the county went all the way down here, and about a year later, they moved the county to write about here, so this was county land or outside land, and this was the city. this was 1861, so the city has grown by this much.

these were added, and they are basically pasture lands. that is where petrero street is. >> and out here, the rancho -- what is a rancho? >> it is a mexican land grant that we agreed to respect when we still california from the mexicans. we agreed to respect the land grants that existed, and there was a commission set up. regretfully, none of the land grants were legally bested, so most of them were taken away from the mexicans. the other portion were pureblo lands, which would be considered entitled to four square leaks -- leagues. so 30 square miles with the

possession of the pueblo of san francisco for public use, and that is how we got golden gate. when they acquired it as publicly, part of the treaty said you had to all mexican law, which set a certain amount of outside plants must be used for schools, playgrounds, open space. the original chaldea san francisco -- the original county of san francisco came from san mateo county. they decided it was too large a county, said the card off another county. at the time, the largest population in the state was in san francisco. l.a. barely made a presidio. they had, like, 50 or 60 people. 90% of the population was in san francisco, and everyone down the peninsula is saying if they are in the county, san francisco has

this huge population, we are going to have to go along with them, so they can't get off -- they carved it off. >> it looks like it is the richmond district, but a kind of shows what was on the west side town. a great deal of it was sam, and for that reason, people thought that the weather and the san -- it was really not a place that people wanted to live, and it was going to be very typical for san francisco -- very difficult for san francisco to expand west. >> if you look at the early maps, it was 3 miles wide by about 6 miles long, this huge sand dunes that just moved around. >> here is an 1875 map of the laguna. says along the side of the map, high sand hills between the pacific ocean and the like. by the way, this had actually

opened directly into the ocean. >> lake merced had a high water level. since we paid over much of the city, the water levels have dropped, but at one time, the late actually trade out into the ocean approximately where the dog diner is that now. somewhere in the 1870's, they saw the damage at the water in the late so it did not exit out uncontrolled, and for 10 years, people were drinking lake merced water as drinking water. it is much bigger, too. if you go to san francisco state, the practice will appeal this part of the lake. i do daily city, that was part of the lake. it was huge. >> the southern area [inaudible]

but there is a different area. >> there was a creek that came down basically through west portal and said that particular lake. >> that was filled in when they develop west portal, and they had the brilliant idea when they dug but,, they needed a place to put it, so they build the creek in with the tunnel muck. >> you can see in 1910, we are talking about after the earthquake, but outer richmond is still pretty sparsely settled. >> or anyone who ever wondered what richmond is named after, it was a guy by the name of marsh, who was from richmond, england. >> australia? >> australia? >> george turner marsh. >> no trees at all. people see trees in the city and

think they may have been made. sand and scrub. at some point, these are the lives were used recreational -- these outer lands were used recreational lly. . >> there is. we hoave -- what, the third? >> depends on it you are coming the addition. but they all burned down. that was around 1900, so if you are ever stuck in traffic in the six-lane boulevard in 19th avenue, imagine what it was like back then. >> [inaudible] i would say this is after they began to develop some homesteading entries. >> it was a large chicken ranch out there.

lawson chicken ranch was along 19th ave. >> [inaudible] >> not exactly. he donated the land later to the city, though. sort of the farm house feeling of the richmond. >> there is a water tower with a windmill in the back. >> right, get your water from wells. that was the early boathouses. looking at that map, sporting men would come out in the horses, have little races with their horses and carriages and the sea horse races, maybe get in a card game, have a drink of the way to the beach. >> but this was when there was county land, so there was no gambling. the move people out to county for the race track. >> they were away from intense public scrutiny out there. >> my of the state is there were four racetracks in the city.

-- my understanding. can you name them? >> pioneer, union, in the side, and oceanside. >> there ago. maybe there are more. >> we have a big article on race tracks on our website. outsidelands.org. >> the ingleside, you can still see that. >> they developed where that race track was, just south of ocean avenue, they kept the oval of the race track and created urbano drive. >> i think we have some progress of that. >> that is the inner sunset. that is where >> lawrence lives > i do. >> you can see the inner sandbank. it is a big old sand hill.

they had to do a lot of grading. >> in the building department, when we go out and look to people to building development, as soon as they squared away the top 6 inches or whatever is there, it is all sand. forever. in my yard, and there is nothing you can do about it. it is what there is. it was generally developed in response to the 1890's for mid- winter there, which was held in golden gate park. would the first buildings that was built in that area was a bar called the little shamrock, and it is still there just west of lincoln, just west from ninth avenue. it was built to help service people who were working on the big winter fair. they are still hoping the neighborhood. >> it is an offshoot of the 1892-8093 columbian exposition

in chicago. when they were done, san francisco said bring it here. >> that is the chicken ranch. the building to the east of that is the chicken ranch, and you can see beyond to the west all sand dunes and hollows and gullies. that is one of the row houses we were talking about. as late as 1910, there were crackdowns and vice raids on road houses all the way to the prohibition. people would to the west side of town to get a drink and to kind of escape public scrutiny. [laughter] >> that is a good way to say it. >> that is the racetrack grandstand. >> that is huge. >> opening day in 1895 through 14,000 people. they put a train line to it. they had a street car line. it was a big deal in those days,

horse racing was. >> reason really interesting progress about car bill. tell us about what cargo was. >> in 1895, adolph sutro owned a couple blocks of land, which were sand dunes. the pavement, the streets. south of golden gate park. there was a train line that brought people from downtown to the beaches. mostly, it was used on sundays. it went along with a good way to the beach. top of that, a few people started using old horse carts, which are essentially street cars that were pulled by horses. they became obsolete as cable cars and electric trolleys took over. and they took these old horse cars and made little foot houses out of it -- clubhouses out of them. some of those turned into permanent residences, and you had up to 100 of these little cars all tumbled out there in the sand dunes. >> i remember when i was a kid

going out there, some of them with all the way over to the zoo, and they had taken more modern streetcars and made holds out of them by picking them up and putting him on a sandlot. >> after the 1906 earthquake, they put in a lot of electric car lights, so it just kept growing. >> here is a building incorporating cars. >> in the upper story. st. andrew's church. 47th ave. a lot of artists and writers and people you might call bohemians at the time went to cargill. it was an artistic place to hang out. you have people going out, maybe getting into landscape, maybe just partying. >> but wasn't there some push back? it had an unsavory reputation. >> in