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 …

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Louis Zamperini Celebration of Life Photos

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 …

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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 …

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Torrance residents: Be careful out there

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 …

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Photos from Election Night in Torrance

Tuesday, June 3 was the California State Primaries and in addition to state and county issues the City of Torrance voted for a new mayor as Mayor Frank Scotto termed out. I am happy to announce that Pat Furey has been elected to be the next Mayor of Torrance. Garnering 6,687 votes for 40.95% of the votes, Furey beat the next closest contender, Tom Brewer who had 35.49% by almost 900 votes. Bill Sutherland came in third with 23.55% of the vote. The Torrance City Council had 16 nominees running for the four available council seats. The winners in that …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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Easyriders Bike Show 2014 Anaheim

It is January and for custom bike builders and those that enjoy looking at custom bikes that means that the 2014 Easyriders Bike Show Tour is now underway. The first stop for the tour was Saturday, January 4 at the Anaheim Convention Center. I have been attending various Easyriders events as a participant or spectator since the mid-80’s and while there are definitely bikes that show up in the show year after year, it is interesting to watch the evolution of motorcycle building. Huge front wheels, etched chrome and amazing paint jobs seemed to be the theme in recent years …

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Floats readied for the 125th Tournament of Roses Parade

If you will recall, last week I headed out to Fiesta Parade Floats to take photos of the floats they were building for the upcoming 125th Tournament of Roses Parade. It was December 23 and at that point the floats were virtual skeletons; waiting for December 26 when the actual decorating could begin. The parade rules state that all surfaces of the float framework must be covered in natural materials; usually flowers and seeds. Since these natural materials have a tendency to decay after they are plucked from the ground, the decorating does not begin until December 26. The decorating …

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