Densho Digital Archive - Takashi Hori - Yoshito Mizuta - Elmer Tazuma Interview (denshovh-htakashi

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ET: Well, any time a problem comes up, we used to run down and --

YM: You used to...

DG: Like tell me about one of them times.

ET: Well, like one time the Seattle apartment operator said they want to go down to Olympia, and they wanted a Japanese representative because we were part of the industry. So I would be the one that had to go down there and speak up.

DG: What did you say?

ET: Well, one of the things I said is we had some very nice tenants, they were paying $45, but one day they found out they were low income people and they can get into brand new apartment for 40 bucks a month. Why should they stay with me? Until then they didn't know they were low income people. So this one fellow stood up and says -- he's one of the richest apartment operators -- he says, "I'm low income people too." I think they caught on that the governor wanted to make more low income housing and that's what we wanted to stop because once the governor gets into the picture, he could put up apartments all over the place because everybody is clamoring for it. They didn't want to stay with us.

DG: So by the time this is in '60s and '70s.

ET: Yeah, in the '60s.

DG: So the rooms weren't all filled by then. There was -- you needed to compete for customers.

ET: They were starting to promise low income housing and the governor wanted to get popular by adding his share. That was -- so we stopped it cold. What they did is they put it on the shelf.

DG: So the whole city, the hakujin operators too?

ET: Yeah, that's right. They didn't want the governor doing that.

DG: And you were just part of that.

ET: We were just a part of it.

DG: Okay. What about some of the other trips to the city.

ET: Well, the state wanted to put in a minimum housing code.

TH: The minimum housing code is the city.

ET: But I think they wanted -- or was it the health department?

TH: I cannot remember what, I know...

ET: There was a health department, but they weren't pushing it at that time, huh?

TH: It's the building department that start pushing the housing code after the 7th Avenue fires.

ET: Oh, I see.