<Begin Segment 11>

DG: Okay. Now, let's kind of summarize the conditions of the hotels, okay. Now, so everybody back in about 1900, according to Yoshito's paper, there were about three hotels to start with. And then since then and they were all small and just rooms, like you say, with beds, right?

TH: That's right. That's what I get from his papers.

DG: And then gradually so those were cheap and easy to get into and easy to run, and then you gradually upgraded to better hotels.

TH: Better hotels, that's right.

DG: So then you were describing, Salty, when you -- the conditions of the hotels were still pretty cheap hotels, but you didn't have to worry about the codes and all of that at those times until 1960's.

TH: Yes. Well, the fire department was getting strict, but they weren't really enforcing. I mean, they overlooked a lot of things. They figured well, this is the type of building it is, this is best they can do, but after the 7th Avenue incident, I mean they really clamped down.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.