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Floats of the 127th Annual Tournament of Roses Parade
Happy New Year everyone. It is New Year\’s Eve 2015 and today I went back out to Fiesta Parade Floats in Irwindale with the hopes of being able to photograph some of the completed floats for the 2016 Rose Parade before they were moved to Pasadena. While I have been photographing the construction of the floats over the past week, I have focused a lot on the City of Torrance entry for obvious reasons, but New Year\’s Eve is also the day that I meet up with the representatives of the California Cut Flower Commission (CCFC). Usually I meet up with them at the Rose Bowl, but this year the Miracle-Gro float was also a certified California Grown float, so I went earlier to meet up at Fiesta; it was a good move.
As fate would have it, they were actually judging the floats so all the floats were pretty much completed. That was the thing, when we were last there I mentioned to Tanya that I thought some floats were running behind schedule. Today there were a couple floats that still had scaffolding up for decorating. This was true at the Rose Bowl as well, so maybe the number of volunteers to decorate was down. I do seem to recall seeing more groups in the past.
I was also lucky enough to run into our recently retired chief of the Torrance Fire Department, William Racowschi, so I was able to get a couple photos of him and his fire-fighting buddies by the Torrance float. The City of Torrance thanks him for his service. 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
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
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
Torrance: No Parking on Street Sweeping Day
Torrance residents have a new issue facing them and that is the fact that due to Federal, State and County mandates we must cut down to zero the amount of trash that enters our storm drains; failure to comply will result in fines of up to $10,000 a day. One method of cutting down on the trash and debris is to improve the efficiency of our street sweepers; in order to accomplish this the City of Torrance is proposing the addition of no parking signs on street sweeping days. This has caused quite an uproar as many people are suggesting that this is not necessary; that people will voluntarily keep their cars off the street on street sweeping day. I saw one comment on Facebook that suggested, \”Street sweeping has been going on for years in my neighborhood – WITH NO SIGNS! Crazy, isn\’t it, to think that people might actually do what is best and right for their neighborhood WITHOUT forced government intervention? Every Monday there is NOT ONE car parked on the street as far as I can see. CRAZY!\”
I decided to watch the video of the April 22 City Council meeting (http://torrance.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=8) and it seems a large number of the people that are against the no parking signs are from the same part of Torrance as the person that made the Facebook comment, so I decided to head out there on Monday. These are the photos of what I observed.
If you have an opinion about this proposal you should head to the Torrance City Council meeting tonight, Tuesday May 20 at 7:00 PM. Continue reading
Photos of the 55th Annual Armed Forces Day Parade
Saturday afternoon, the City of Torrance hosted their 55th Annual Armed Forces Day Parade, the longest running military parade sponsored by any city in the United States. Each year a different branch of the military is honored with this year being the Navy. The Grand Marshal was United States Navy Rear Admiral Patrick J Lorge.
In addition to the dignitaries, high school and military marching bands, and military equipment there were several aerial flyovers and a mass swearing in of about 600 young men and women to various branches of the armed forces. While it was a pretty hot day, there seemed to be a consensus that it was a fun parade and the 20 degree drop in temperatures was quite welcomed.
The military equipment is on display at the Del Amo Fashion Square until 3:00 PM on Sunday. Continue reading
The 55th Annual Armed Forces Day Celebration in Torrance
It is that time of year again, the Torrance Armed Forces Day celebration is this weekend with the highlight being the 2014 Armed Forces Day Parade, the nation\’s longest running military parade sponsored by any city which will be held Saturday from 1:30-3:30 PM. Every year a different branch of the military is honored and this year it is the US Navy. The parade runs down Torrance Boulevard from Crenshaw to Madronna. If we are lucky and the weather forecast is correct, it should be a lot cooler than it has been.
These photos are of the military exhibits which can be found at the Del Amo Fashion Square, by the Macy\’s entrance and will be viewable from Friday through Sunday. You can visit the City of Torrance website for all the pertinent Armed Forces Day celebration information. Continue reading
Mooneyes Mother\’s Day Show & Drags
Regular readers of GotBaddog may recall that since 2010 I have been attending and photographing the Mooneyes Christmas Party, Car Show & Drag Races at Irwindale Speedway. This past December the weather did the unthinkable by raining out the event; if you can imagine rain in December. As a result, Mooneyes rescheduled the event for Saturday, May 10 and renamed it the Mooneyes Mother\’s Day Show & Drags. Even though I had other plans, I decided to stop by Irwindale to check out the morning action.
The first thing I noticed was that there was a much smaller crowd that I have ever seen at the Christmas Show; so much smaller that the parking situation which usually causes the most complaints was not an issue at all. As I made my way through the car show to the drag strip it suddenly dawned on me that I had forgotten to bring my ear protection. As I usually like to get situated a little ways down from the staging lights I decided my ears would survive without them. After I signed my waiver and prepared to get situated I was informed that things were different this year and photographers had to stay in one small area right by the staging lanes. To those unfamiliar, this is where the cars typically do their burnouts to make the tires sticky; it is also about the loudest place one can stand. After one of the first cars hit a wall it caused a fairly significant delay while debris was removed from the track; the next set of cars that staged were far too loud for my unprotected ears and I decided that I was not going to be able to get the shots I wanted so I called it a day. Continue reading
Griffiths for City Council Campaign Kickoff
These photos were taken last week, February 3 at the Mike Griffiths for Torrance City Council 2014 campaign kickoff which was held at the RE/MAX room in Torrance. While this site is not really dedicated to politics, I have been trying to attend as many Torrance City Council meetings as possible so I know what is happening at the local level with our city\’s governing body. As a result, I have become acquainted with our mayor and most of the city council members.
The General Municipal Election for Torrance will be held in June of 2014. There will be several vacancies on the city council because Mayor Scotto will term out and one of the current council members will replace him. There are also a couple council members that will term out so this is a pretty important city election. Because I do attend council meetings on a pretty regular basis I see which candidates are regular attendees of the weekly city council meetings. To be honest, there are only two candidates that I ever see there and Mike Griffiths is one of them. He introduced himself to me at one of the first meetings I attended. While I am not going to make any official endorsements, I will go so far as to suggest that if someone wants to be on the Torrance City Council, they should probably consider reserving every Tuesday evening for the next four months to attend council meetings if for no other reason than to be seen.
The campaign kickoff fundraiser was a pretty well attended event that included food, beer, wine, speeches and magic performed by Magic Castle performer Steve Silverman. His sleight-of-hand magic was very entertaining. Everyone seemed to have a nice time. If you want to know more about Griffiths\’ position on issues and history with the City of Torrance please visit his website. Continue reading