Hey, neighbor!

Labor Day weekend is almost here, which supposedly means it’s time to say goodbye to summer.

Torrance would like a word.

We’ve still got beach days, outdoor concerts, dinners on the patio and plenty of weather that says summer even if the calendar is moving on.

So enjoy the long weekend. Summer isn’t done with us yet.

Here’s your weekly wave.

In this issue:
​🌊 Meet the man who's been keeping Southern California dancing for nearly 50 years
🌊 Ride a miniature railroad, sing with a live band + squeeze a little more summer out of Labor Day weekend
🌊 More than 1,200 homes are coming around Del Amo. We took a closer look at what's being built—and what it could mean for traffic.

💌 P.S. Help me make The Tide better. Cast your vote below, and if there’s something you want more (or less) of, hit reply and tell me. I’d love to hear it.

Tide Poll: What do you most look forward to reading each week? Locals Only 👋 This Weekend 🗓️ Crush List 💙 The Current 🌊

Meet Mike Bendavid, who’s been keeping Southern California dancing for nearly 50 years.

​
The first time Mike Bendavid walked into a country bar, he was wearing a white suit.

“I looked like a sore thumb,” he said.

It was 1978, and Mike was a disco guy. Then a woman asked him to dance.

“I kind of moved around a little bit, like disco,” he said. “And she says, ‘No, put your hand over here.’”

She taught him the steps and told him she’d see him there the following week.

“I wasn’t going to tell a pretty girl no,” Mike said. He came back in a cowboy hat and boots. “And I never looked back on disco.”

Nearly five decades later, Mike is still country dancing. He’s taught at nightclubs across Southern California, choreographed for television and film, taught at Stagecoach and even appeared with his wife, Diana, in Toby Keith’s “I Love This Bar” music video.

These days, you can find Mike and Diana every Thursday night at Mom Said Yes in Torrance—one of the 14 sessions he teaches weekly—instructing a crowd they didn't necessarily expect.

Five-year-olds. Middle schoolers. High schoolers. College students.

Most country venues are 21 and over, but here, young people have a place to learn.

“It’s exciting how many young people there are,” Diana said. “They’re interested. They’re curious. They want to learn.”

Get one dance down, then another. “All of a sudden,” she said, “you’re hooked.”

On a recent Thursday, Mike stopped the room to lead everyone in “Happy Birthday” for Mia, who was there celebrating her 18th. Then it was back to dancing.

“They ask me for their songs and I play them,” Mike said. “They’re happy, and that’s what it’s all about.”

The music has changed plenty over Mike’s five decades of teaching. The dances? Not necessarily.

“The songs keep changing, but the dances remain the same,” he said.

For beginners, Mike often starts with the Electric Slide and builds from there. And after teaching thousands of people, what keeps him coming back isn’t Stagecoach or music videos.

“It’s that new person, never done it before,” he said. “It’s that smile on their face that says, ‘I did it.’”

And if you’re fairly certain you have no rhythm? Mike has heard that one before.

“Come,” he said. “Come and try it. So what? Nobody knows who you are. Come and try it.”

Turns out, that's pretty much how Mike started, too.

THREE MORE THINGS
The one line dance everyone should know:​
The Electric Slide. “It’s done at all the parties.”

Cowboy boots required?​
“No, no, no. Leather-soled shoes are best for sliding, but you don’t need to run out and buy cowboy boots.”

Mike's current pair:​
“I’m wearing my snakes now.”

Next week, meet the crossing guard making sure Torrance kids start and end their school day with a smile.

Know someone quietly making Torrance better? Submit an idea.​

​Partner with The Tide.​

There’s a miniature railroad hiding inside Wilson Park, and Sunday is your chance to ride it.

Twice a month, the Southern California Live Steamers send kids and grown-ups around the park aboard miniature trains built and maintained by volunteer railroad enthusiasts.

It’s one of those wonderfully specific Torrance things that’s easy to live near for years without ever doing, and you can change that this weekend.

Wilson Park | Sunday, Sept. 6 from 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. | Free

Friday, September 4
​Katy Geissert Civic Center Library – Sensory Storytime at 10 a.m. A gentler storytime for kids ages 0–5 with sensory challenges or neuro-differences, giving little ones and their families more room to enjoy stories at their own pace.

Torrance & West High – Friday Night Football at 7 p.m. Two home games under the lights: Torrance hosts Northview while West takes on Hawthorne across town. Pick your bleachers and catch the first home Friday of September.

Mom Said Yes – Myron Barnett at 8:30 p.m. Singer and guitarist Myron Barnett brings a soulful, guitar-driven blues set to Friday night.

Saturday, September 5
​Home Depot – Kids Workshop at 9 a.m. Kids ages 5–12 can build a school bus organizer, practice using real hand tools and take their project home with an apron, pin and certificate.

Walteria Library – BARK Reading to Dogs at 11 a.m. Some reading buddies have four legs. Kids can practice reading aloud to friendly therapy dogs, building confidence and fluency with a very nonjudgmental audience.

Madrona Marsh Nature Center – How to Compost in Torrance at 1 p.m. Not sure what belongs in the green bin versus a backyard compost pile? LA Compost breaks down three ways to put your food scraps to work, with practical tips for getting started.

Henderson Library – Improv at the Library at 2 p.m. Spend Saturday afternoon making things up on the spot with improv games led by Torrance Adult School instructor Rick Ramirez. The two-hour session is open to all ages.

Smog City – Live Band Karaoke at 5 p.m. Skip the backing track and sing with an actual band behind you. Kevin Karaoke and the K-Jam Band bring the songbook; you bring your best rock-star impression.

Wilson Park – Petty Theft at 5 p.m. Free Fallin’ at Wilson Park sounds like a pretty good Saturday plan. Torrance Summer Nights favorite Petty Theft is back with a full set of Tom Petty hits.

​
​Sunday, September 6
​Wilson Park – Southern California Live Steamers at 11 a.m. Hop aboard the miniature trains for a loop through Wilson Park, powered by a volunteer crew that’s been keeping local railroad history alive for decades.

Nearby: Eastview Park – Pedro Pet Pals Adoption Event at 12 p.m. Meet adoptable cats and dogs looking for a home, browse local vendors and keep an eye out for the Pedro Pet Pals cat bus. Fair warning: you may leave with an extra passenger.

Barnes & Noble Del Amo – Grandparents Day Book Signing at 2 p.m. Author Perry Solomon signs Grandpa Day, his guide to helping grandfathers build stronger relationships with their grandchildren through time, attention and shared experiences.

Nearby: Polliwog Park – ABBA LA at 5 p.m. “Mamma Mia,” summer went fast. Manhattan Beach closes out its Concerts in the Park season with ABBA LA and two hours of dancing on the lawn.

All Weekend
​Nearby: Downtown Hermosa Beach — Fiesta Hermosa. More than 250 makers, four live music stages, a mini carnival and plenty of food take over downtown for Labor Day weekend.

Nearby: Long Beach — Long Beach Greek Festival. Come hungry for Greek food, live music, dancing and shopping at this annual Labor Day weekend tradition.

Weather Forecast? Summer’s not going quietly.
⛅ Fri 67°/78° Partly Cloudy
☀️ Sat 71°/81° Mostly Sunny
🌧️ Sun 72°/82° Showers

🍽️ Must Try Aunty Maile's Hawaiian Restaurant | Garlic Shrimp | Breaded, fried, and finished in a garlic sauce, served the traditional way, shell-on. One Yelp reviewer didn't hedge: "The garlic shrimp was the best I ever had." ​The Find →

🎶 On Repeat “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” by The Beach Boys | For September days that still feel an awful lot like summer. ​Hit Play →​

🏡 Eye Catching 1828 Andreo | That family room: soaring wood-beamed ceilings, a huge river rock fireplace and the kind of Old Torrance character you just can’t manufacture. ​Let's Go →

🗞️ Apparently, the L.A. Times loves Torrance, too. The paper just devoted one of its “This Must Be” guides to our city, with 14 places that capture a little of what makes Torrance Torrance. There are familiar favorites like Torrance Bakery and Rocketship Park, plus spots you might not know yet, from Japanese vinyl at Boogie Maru Sounds to koi feeding at Rainforest Flora. There’s your next free Saturday.

📚 Keep an eye on the Little Free Libraries. Free copies of Chloe Benjamin’s new novel, Under Story, are showing up in 150 Little Free Libraries across the U.S. and Canada. It’s part love story, part scientific adventure, set at an isolated research station in Antarctica. We don’t know if a copy made it to Torrance, which makes checking the little library down the street considerably more interesting this week.

🎓 Throw an adult back-to-school party. How fun is this? Invite a few friends over, pour something good and host a spelling bee. Everyone thinks they can spell until someone calmly says, “Your word is restaurant.”

Found something delightfully Torrance this week? Hit reply and send it our way!

🏗️ More than 1,200 new homes are coming around Del Amo​
If it feels like there's a lot of building happening around Del Amo lately, you're right. Five major housing projects surrounding the mall are under construction or in the works, totaling 1,215 new homes. That includes 260 townhomes at Carson and Madrona, two 200-unit apartment projects along Carson, and another 555 apartments planned along Torrance Boulevard. Add the recently completed 218-unit Gable House and this pocket of Torrance is gaining more than 1,400 homes altogether, gradually turning an area long dominated by shopping, offices and parking lots into a much more residential part of the city. See the city's full Major Development Dashboard here.​

🚦 And what about traffic?
​All these new homes raise an obvious question: What will all of this mean for traffic? A 2024 study for the 260-townhome Fashion Square project factored in several nearby developments and found all 10 intersections studied were expected to continue operating at levels the city considers satisfactory. But that study doesn't capture everything now in the pipeline, including the 449-unit Vista Homes and 106-unit Bungalows projects. So we asked. The city's Planning Division had not responded by publication time to our question about whether any analysis looks at the cumulative impact of all the housing now planned around Del Amo. We'll let you know what we hear.

🚎 Torrance is getting its own trolley
​Seven of the city's 10 new rubber-wheel trolleys have arrived, with all 10 expected by the end of September and service planned to begin in January. One route will loop through Torrance, connecting the Regional Transit Center with City Hall, downtown, the hotel district, Del Amo Fashion Center and Madrona Marsh, with service planned every 15 minutes or less. A second “beach trolley” is also being designed, potentially heading to Torrance Beach or Redondo Beach. Consider us intrigued.

🎾 Torrance’s Iva Jovic is moving on at the U.S. Open​
Torrance-raised Iva Jovic is headed to the second round of the U.S. Open after beating Poland’s Magdalena Fręch in straight sets Wednesday. And at just 18, Jovic has climbed to a career-high No. 14 in the world after a year that included an Australian Open quarterfinal and a run to Wimbledon’s Round of 16. Next up: American Francesca Jones. Not bad for a Torrance kid.

🎄 Sleepy Hollow could get some new rules

It may be September, but Torrance is already looking ahead to holiday lights season. A City Council committee is recommending changes that would allow residents to sell approved cottage-food items from their properties again, while also tightening rules for repeat code violators. The city will also explore ways to reduce neighborhood traffic, which is no small issue: Torrance spends nearly $200,000 each year managing traffic, policing and code enforcement during the privately organized display. The full City Council is expected to take up the recommendations in October.

🌳 A little park refresh around Torrance

Two local parks are getting some attention. Alta Loma Park is getting a new playground, including a big Volo Aire climbing structure, slides, swings and new inclusive play areas, with construction expected through October. Over at Hickory Park, the tennis court resurfacing is underway, and the city is also exploring a possible new multi-use court there. Funding and design still need to be worked out, with community input planned before anything moves forward.

✈️ You picked Concept 1

Last week, we asked which proposed Torrance Airport logo should get the nod. In the end, 82% of Tide readers chose Concept 1. Now we’ll see if the city agrees.

PASS THE TIDE 🌊 Know someone who’d like this little corner of Torrance? Hit forward + invite a neighbor. Thank you, friend.

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