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Torrance comes to Fiesta Floats
On Sunday evening several bus loads of Torrance residents, along with their mayor, the city council, commissioners and other various dignitaries headed out to Irwindale and Fiesta Parade Floats to check out the progress of the float that the City of Torrance is sponsoring for the 126th Annual Tournament of Roses Parade.
The theme of this year\’s Rose Parade is \”Inspiring Stories\” with the Grand Marshal being Torrance hometown hero, Louis Zamperini, who passed away earlier this year. The Torrance entry is called \”A Race Well Run\” and will feature black-and-white photos of Zamperini\’s life, the Olympic torch and other imagery that reflects Zamperini\’s life including a replica of the B-24 plane he was shot down in during World War II. Since the movie Unbroken was released on Christmas Day the City of Torrance hopes that this float, dedicated to the memory of Louis Zamperini, can once again bring international recognition to the city.
Sunday\’s visit required a little imagination as all the floats essentially had most of their big items removed so flowers and seeds could be added prior to the reassembly which must be completed by Tuesday night. If you would like to see the progress that has been made over the last two weeks, you can see a few of my photos on CNN\’s iReport. I will return one more time, on New Year\’s Eve, so I can get some up close and personal shots of the finished product. Continue reading
Candy Cane Lane returns to Sleepy Hollow
It is that time of year again, when the residents of the Seaside area of South Torrance, also known as Sleepy Hollow, show true community cooperation by decorating entire blocks in an extravaganza of Christmas lights, transforming the neighborhood into Candy Cane Lane.
A tradition that, by all verifiable accounts, began in 1985 has become seemingly more popular with each successive year; if not with the residents most definitely with the visitors that come to view the lights. In prior years it seemed that you had to know where you were going in order to find the decorated neighborhood. This year I have spotted several signs directing drivers to the Christmas lights and some streets seem to have been modified to keep the traffic flowing and to keep people from becoming lost in the maze of streets that all seem to look alike when the sun goes down and the lights come on.
These photos were taken on Tuesday and Wednesday nights because I wanted to get some photos in before the crowds got too big. Even though it is still two weeks before Christmas several long lines of cars can be found driving up and down the decorated streets. It is a safe bet that the weekends will be even more crowded with both car and pedestrian traffic. The lights at Candy Cane Lane are on from 6:00 until 10:00 PM and will be on every night until at least New Years. If you decide you want to visit the decorated area, I highly recommend parking and walking the streets. It may be chilly but there are plenty of people selling hot chocolate, home-baked cookies and popcorn. There are carolers, musicians and an occasional Santa Claus sighting has been reported. It is a good time for young and old, you will enjoy yourself. Continue reading
Torrance 2014 State of the City Address
These photos are from the Torrance 2014 State of the City luncheon presented by the Torrance Area Chamber of Commerce and held at the Doubletree by Hilton Torrance – South Bay. This was the inaugural State of the City address given by our newly elected Mayor, Pat Furey. In addition to the State of the City address, the Chamber of Commerce also awarded Bob and Laurie Brandt, owners of the Red Car Brewery & Restaurant, the Citizens of the Year Award for 2014.
Mayor Furey used his time to give attendees a brief view of his background then proceeded to introduce the individual members of the Torrance City Council and discussed what each brought to the table; from Councilman Rizzo\’s 31 years with the Torrance Police Department to Councilman Tim Goodrich\’s involvement with the Sierra Club and his championing of environmental issues. Together, all seven members brought something to make this new city council valuable to the City of Torrance.
After introducing council members as well as various staff and department heads, Mayor Furey went on to deliver a pretty upbeat speech concentrating on various accomplishments Torrance has achieved such as the low unemployment rate and the general safety of the city; then declaring the room for improvement and how Torrance was working towards improving the streets and infrastructure as well as bringing in new International business. You can find the transcript of the State of the City Address on the City of Torrance website. The video can be found on YouTube. Continue reading
An Open Letter to the Torrance City Council
On July 15 the City of Torrance got a new mayor, Pat Furey; and a new city council consisting of incumbent Gene Barnett, and newly elected council members Kurt Weideman, Heidi Ashcraft, Tim Goodrich and Geoff Rizzo. Now, it is true that Weideman and Ashcraft had one year and six months experience respectively as they had both been appointed, not elected, to the council but their combined 18 months of experience is but a drop in the bucket compared to the time put in by the council members they replaced. The fact is that on July 15 Torrance lost 30 years of experience between the departing of Mayor Frank Scotto, and Councilmen Bill Sutherland and Tom Brewer. Since Pat Furey was elected mayor, this resulted in another vacancy on the Torrance City Council. The options to fill the vacancy are either hold a special election at the cost of $200,000 or let the current council agree on an appointment. It was decided to solicit applications for the vacancy.
Apparently there were 12 applications submitted including six candidates from the June election; Leilani Kimmel-Dagostino, Michael Griffiths, Alex See, Milton Herring, Rahmay Khan and Ryan Mand. Additional applications were submitted by Charles Deemer, Ray Uchima, Mario Obejas, Jimmy Gow, William Daniel Feliz and recently retired City Clerk Sue Herbers. The current city council must make a decision at the upcoming council meeting scheduled for August 12 or a special election must be held. It is in the best interest of the city that a consensus is reached and the special election be avoided. I do not think there is much argument by any intelligent citizen that an appointment is the best way to go about this; the only discussion is who should be appointed. While no one has asked my opinion, I am going to give it anyway. Continue reading
Louis Zamperini Celebration of Life Photos
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The following photos were taken Thursday evening at the Louis Zamperini Celebration of Life which was held at Torrance High School\’s Zamperini Stadium. I should probably preface this by saying that I am not really in the habit of going to memorial services for people I do not know but over the past couple of years Mr. Zamperini\’s name seemed to pop up more and more in conversations so much so that I felt like I did know him slightly. As I was walking the dogs last night I recalled how our family moved to Torrance [almost] 50 years ago and that even then my dad would mention the Zamperini name; even if I did not really appreciate who this man was. By the end of last night\’s event I felt that I knew Louis much better and I wished I had made more of an effort to learn about him while he was alive.
The remembrance to honor Louis Zamperini\’s life was a very moving and educational event. From local juvenile delinquent to hometown and national hero, we learned a lot about Zamperini. We were able to hear from people like former Torrance Mayor Ken Miller whose family moved next door to the Zamperini family 80 years ago when Miller was a freshman at Torrance High and Zamperini was a senior. Zamperini\’s daughter Cynthia, his son Luke and his grandson Clay all spoke of their lives with a living hero that was, by all accounts, a very humble man. We then got to hear from people like Kyle Gauthier that had only recently met Zamperini who had donated several thousand dollars to help send this young man to Victory Boys Camp, a camp he established in 1952 for wayward youth, where he taught other juvenile delinquents the skills to succeed in life. Speaker after speaker pretty much had the same things to say; this was a man that endured a lot, but was made a better man for it. Continue reading
Our Petition to WhiteHouse.gov & why you should sign it
Long time readers are familiar with the saga of my fiancee Tanya and her life being diagnosed with Rheumatoid Autoimmune Disease, aka Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), which turned out to not be RA but rather a Biotinidase Deficiency. Since my server stats indicate that I have a lot of new readers I will summarize the ordeal for you.
In December of 2003 Tanya was diagnosed as having Rheumatoid Arthritis due to her joint pain and fatigue. As the years went by her symptoms got worse and she spent close to $500,000 in treatments that included low dose chemo. In 2013 one of her nieces had a baby. These days, thanks in part to the March of Dimes, gene testing is done on newborns to see if there are genetic defects that the new parents should be aware of. As it turned out, the baby was a carrier of the gene for Biotinidase Deficiency, but they did not know what side of the family the gene came from so Tanya had a vitamin and nutrition test done on herself. It took a couple tests and a couple months to get the results, but on July 19, 2013 she was informed that she was profoundly deficient in Vitamin B7. Her doctor did not know how to treat it and said they would get back to her with a treatment plan; as of July 25, 2014 they still have not called back.
Luckily, one of Tanya\’s skills is research and she immediately sought out ways to get enough B7 in her system since the gene mutation prevented her body from separating B7 from the protein it is attached to in foods, so her body just passed it out. Long story short, she discovered Biotin and started experimenting with it since there is essentially no information available on how to treat Biotinidase Deficiency. The results were immediate; literally overnight she started noticing improvements in her health. She immediately discontinued the use of the various prescriptions she had been taking for years and has not taken any of them in the past year. 13 months ago we were wondering how much time she had left on earth; this past Saturday we celebrated the one year anniversary of her rebirth. Continue reading
The City of Torrance has a new mayor and council
On Tuesday evening, the Torrance City Council went through a major changing of the guard, with Pat Furey being sworn in as our new mayor; and Kurt Weideman, Heidi Ashcraft, Tim Goodrich and Geoff Rizzo being sworn in as new council members. Weideman had been appointed to the council a year ago when Councilwoman Susan Rhilinger resigned due to health; and Ashcraft was appointed in December when Cliff Numark was elected to the El Camino College Board of Trustees. They have a combined year and a half of experience compared to the 30 years of experience between the departing Mayor Frank Scotto, and Councilmen Bill Sutherland and Tom Brewer. It is going to be an interesting time for Torrance; no doubt.
The evening began with a ceremony marking the departure of City Clerk Sue Herbers who retired after 20 years of service. In her farewell address she mentioned that she will still be around and be as active as ever; even if it is as an audience member. She did mention that if the council decided to accept applications for the vacant seat that we now have since Furey became Mayor, she would apply. More on that later, but personally, she would be outstanding.
Herbers last official duty was the swearing in of Council members Weideman, Ashcraft, Goodrich and Rizzo; Pat Furey as Mayor and Rebecca Poirier as the new City Clerk. And with that we lost 50 years of experience in one swoop. Continue reading
Torrance residents: Be careful out there
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If you follow current events in Torrance you are probably aware of the decision to install permissive blinking yellow lights for left turn lanes and certain major intersections in the city. The intent, of which I am in favor, is to allow cars that are sitting in the left lane at a red light with no oncoming traffic to proceed with caution. It is a great concept that I am sure everyone agrees is long overdue; however, when these signals are installed they also need to be programmed and apparently they are not being programmed correctly or whomever decided on the cycling of the lights did not give any real thought to the process or the possible consequences of their haphazard decision. Allow me to elaborate.
This evening at 9:45 my fiancee and I were walking the dogs eastbound on 182nd Street approaching Prairie. At Prairie we would cross 182nd and continue south on Prairie. As we reached the northwest corner of 182nd and Prairie I immediately pressed the button for the WALK signal to protect Tanya, the dogs and myself as we crossed 182nd Street. As we stood there waiting for our WALK signal Tanya and I noticed that all the left turn lanes for the east/west traffic were blinking yellow immediately. There was no protective green for the cars in the left turn lanes in either direction. It became clear that instead of supplementing the green light as it should, the new signal was replacing it! There is no more protective green arrow for left turns. That is not the intent of those signals; but it gets worse. Continue reading
Urgent message to all LA County pet owners
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I started blogging close to 15 years ago and I have never written an article that was this important or difficult to write; first, a little back-story.
Pictured above are my daughter Jess with her two Golden Retrievers, Heidi and Lauren. While most dog owners will tell you how important their dogs are to them; Lauren and Heidi were truly special animals. They helped my daughter through a tough divorce and they were very therapeutic for her in her personal life as she works as a social worker specializing in investigating the worst of the worst child abuse cases. The cases she works on are frequently in the headlines; the details of which would turn your stomach and make the toughest man cry. Lauren and Heidi provided an outlet for her and were the reason she took up running. They were frequently found at various running events with the Pasadena Pacers and everyone that interacted with the three of them seemed to always be positively impacted by the experience. As annoying as it sounds at times, these dogs were her children; they played an important role in her sanity. You may have noticed that I keep talking about Lauren and Heidi in the past tense.
On Monday, June 9 I received a frantic telephone call from my daughter; she had come home early from work to discover Lauren lying on the floor of the bathroom soaked in her own urine, breathing heavily and bleeding from her mouth. It was clear she had experienced a seizure. She was limp, listless and unable to lift her own head even with assistance. Jess got help from a neighbor to get Lauren in the car so she could be transported to her veterinarian a couple blocks away from her home. Lauren was immediately put on oxygen, given plasma and Vitamin K via an IV as her blood would not clot. After about a half hour of working on Lauren, Jess was sent home to get Heidi to have her checked out. By the time she got home, Heidi could not get up off the ground and had to be carried even a few steps to the car and into the vet where an IV was started and she was given oxygen. Continue reading
The Stanley Cup returns to the South Bay
Sorry, for the delay; it has been a busy week. These photos were taken Wednesday on Pier Avenue where it meets The Strand as the Los Angeles Kings brought the Stanley Cup back to Hermosa Beach for the second time in as many years. Unlike last year when the parade basically went down Pier Avenue from the fire department to the plaza, this year\’s parade began at the Redondo Beach Police Department and ended in Manhattan Beach. Continue reading