“Homelessness in Torrance—What is being done?”

Valerie Hernandez, Social Worker with Harbor Interfaith of San Pedro, and Viet Hoang, Deputy City Manager of Torrance, will discuss the City’s Homeless Program, the County’s yearly Homeless Count, and the programs that help people go from the street to home.

Deputy City Manager Viet Hoang directs and helped to create the City’s Tiny Homes Village behind City Hall. Viet also oversees the Torrance portion of the County Homeless Count.  Valerie Hernandez is a social worker with Harbor Interfaith Services which is contracted with the City of Torrance to work with the City’s homeless.

Mark your calendar to meet with us on ZOOM Thursday. May 18 at 7:00 PM to hear both of these local experts discuss what leads people and families to become unhoused and what is necessary to help them back into stability and homes.      

Please use this link to attend this virtual RHA meeting:

• Meeting ID: 872 1165 3919
  Passcode: 791345
• One tap mobile
  +16699006833,,87211653919#,,,,*791345# US (San Jose)

You can watch this video to learn some of what Torrance is doing to address homelessness in the City.

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Again, we would like to urge you all to attend the second Transportation Committee meeting regarding the Airport Traffic Wednesday. At the first meeting in December, the pilots vastly outnumbered the residents. We need to show ourselves if we have any hope of a successful outcome.

If you want to speak, you will have one minute, but just showing up and supporting our community is vital and will be appreciated. Let’s pull together as a community. You will not regret the time spent on this important issue!

Please attend and WEAR RED to show support. See the details in our last post for where and when.

Thank you!

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After four months of waiting, we will hear from the Transportation Committee at its next meeting and hearing on Wednesday, April 12 at 6:00 (NOT 7:00) in the Council Chamber, City Hall, 3031 Torrance Blvd.

Because this conflicts with our scheduled RHA meeting on homelessness,  we are postponing our April 12 meeting.  We will reschedule it as soon as the speakers are available, probably in May. We will keep you posted.

Why is the Airport Committee meeting so important?  

Two reasons:  the first is, we will finally learn what their recommendations to City Council will be regarding Airport Noise, Enforcement, and limiting the number of flight schools.

If you have seen the article in the “Daily Breeze” on March 12, or the promo on television, you know that Sling Pilot Academy is planning to add flights here.  They acquired $500,000 in Federal funds to offer scholarships to potential pilots.  Sling is now actively recruiting new pilots and have plans to greatly expand their Torrance program.  They want more planes, more flights, more noise….

The second reason to attend the meeting is to state your opinion about the City of Torrance deciding NOT to be a signatory on the Letter of Agreement (LOA).  Only the flight schools and the FAA will sign these voluntary measures.  The City owns the airport, and manages it according to the Municipal Code.  If they don’t sign the LOA, will they still enforce the Code?  The Letter of Agreement is voluntary, so how will it be enforced?  This is all very vague. We want laws, not promises.

We need to go to the meeting, write letters and consider next steps.  The City Staff and Community Development appear deaf to residents’ concerns.  We want the Transportation Committee OR residents to propose a stronger proposition than a voluntary Letter of Agreement.

Please come to City Hall on April 12.  You will only have one minute to speak, but you can write as long a letter as you want—we should all do both!  Write to CityCouncil@TorranceCA.gov

•                             MRamirez@TorranceCA.gov  (Community Development/Noise Abatement Director
•                              OMartinez@TorranceCA.gov (Assistant CDD Director)
•                              AChaparyan@TorranceCA.gov (City Manager)
•                              DSantantana@TorranceCA.gov (Asst. Manager)
•                              RHerrera@TorranceCA.gov (Airport Operations)
•                              SMegerdichian@TorranceCA.gov General Services Mgr     
•                              GPinela@TorranceCA.gov (Airport Services)

Send emails by Thursday, April 6 to be sure it makes the April 7 deadline

We believe the City Council will take the most reasonable approach, so we want them to hear from our side. 

Thank you so much and good luck to all of us!

Judy Brunetti, President Riviera Homeowners Association

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The RHA and the Reform Torrance Airport Association has sent a letter to the Torrance City Council, and specifically to the council’s Transportation Committee regarding the issues of noise and lead pollution from the Torrance Airport (Zamperini Field):

• Click here to see the entire letter to the City Council Transportation Committee
  • Click here to see the accompanying matrix of airport environmental issues
• Click here for an in-depth reporting of the impact of lead from general aviation aircraft

For more background on your RHA’s response to the noise and pollution problem from the Torrance Airport, please see our Torrance Airport Issues page

Torrance Centenarian Program

Do you have a friend or family member celebrating their birthday of 100 years or older?

The City of Torrance would like to honor your loved one’s wealth of experience and longevity through its Centenarian Program, administered by the Recreation Division and Commission on Aging. After filling out the application below, the Centenarian will receive a venerable certificate and Centenarian Coin from the City at a future City Council Meeting.

Participants or their loved ones must submit their application no less than two months prior to the Centenarian’s birthday and the honoree must be a resident of the City of Torrance.

For more information, please call the city at 310-618-2930

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The Ellinwood Riviera Legacy

By Elizabeth A. Spatz, Riviera Homeowners Association Historian

Recently I was researching the history of my home in the Torrance Riviera and learned from its original 1956 building permit, that its provenance began with an owner referred to as the “Ellinwood Corporation.” I was not familiar with the name Ellinwood, and was compelled to learn more. What I discovered—a heritage stemming from the Civil War era and California’s Rancho days, routed through some of San Francisco’s founding medical community—was not what I expected.

Charles Norman Ellinwood, born in Vermont in 1834, became a well-respected physician in the San Francisco Bay area. Attending medical school in Chicago in 1858 and continuing his studies in Paris until 1862, he joined the 74th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment, assembled in Rockford, IL on 4 Sept. 1862, and operated as a surgeon in the U.S. Civil War for Lincoln’s army until his discharge as medical director on 10 June 1865. In 1866,

Dr. C.N. Ellinwood moved to San Francisco, married Elizabeth Steele McDowell of New York, and settled into a prominent career in medicine, serving on the boards of Cooper Medical College, the Regents of the State University of California, and as president of the San Francisco Medical Society.

In the course of his successful medical career, C.N. Ellinwood had befriended his colleague, Dr. Levi Cooper Lane, founder of the Cooper Medical College and Lane Hospital, both institutions having been under Ellinwood’s leadership for a time. At Dr. Lane’s death in May of 1902, the task of distributing his estate was left to Ellinwood, who, following the death of Lane’s widow just six months later, chose to retain the majority of the holdings as his own property, maintaining that the estate was left to him unconditionally by Mrs. Lane. One of the properties in Dr. Lane’s estate was a plot of land located in Southern California, purchased by Lane for taxes and identified as Lot B in an 1882 partition map of the Rancho Los Palos Verdes.

Click here to see the rest of the story!

Save the Date for the Next Riviera Homeowners Association General Meeting 4/12/23

April’s meeting will be online only this time. The Zoom link and more information on the speakers will be posted before the meeting.

As always, we cannot do these without you and your support. Please consider making a donation to help keep us going and keep you informed of important information.

Free Household Hazardous and Electronic Waste Drive-Thru Collection Event

Don’t let that hazardous waste and old electronics sit around!

Date: 03/19/2023 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM   

Location: Torrance Courthouse Parking Lot
825 Maple Ave.
Torrance, California 90503

For more information on what you can bring and cannot bring, please view this page

Make Art Inspired Poppies!

Date: March 18 2023 10:00 AM 
Location:El Retiro Library
126 Vista Del Parque

In honor of Women’s History Month, adults are invited to create beautiful paper poppies inspired by the work of artist Georgia OKeeffe. Please call Library staff at 310-375-0922 to register.

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