The request, submitted in July by La Cañada Flintridge resident Laura Noell, asks the city to accept a bench she would pay for and donate to replace an aging, worn bench along the Hahamongna loop overlooking Devil’s Gate Reservoir.
Unlike most matters the commission handles, this one carries binding authority. Under the City of Pasadena’s Public Monument Policy, the Recreation and Parks Commission — not the City Council — will make this decision.
Moldover was an internationally known physicist with ties to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. During his 47 years working at the National Institute of Science and Technology, originally the Bureau of Standards, in Gaithersburg, Maryland, he traveled to Pasadena to sit on panels and consult with peers at JPL. According to the proposal, his stepson Aaron Noell and daughter-in-law Raquel Rodriguez Monje continue that tradition working at JPL. Noell wrote that she often walks through Hahamongna to sit at the bench overlooking the reservoir, with its view of JPL.
The Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department has assigned the bench to that category. If the commission approves the request, the decision would take effect on the 11th day afterward unless an appeal or a Call for Review is filed with the City Clerk before that date, at which point the City Council could review the matter.
The department reported it evaluated the proposal against criteria including appropriateness, compatibility, impact on park use, aesthetics, maintenance and safety, and found it consistent with the Public Monument Policy. Because Noell has committed to paying all costs related to the memorial, staff reported there would be no fiscal impact to the city.
The proposed bench would be a Victor Stanley Model 8, the standard model used in the Arroyo Seco areas, in either a six- or eight-foot length, installed at the location of the existing bench just past the Flint Wash Bridge at mile 2.3 of the loop hike.
A bronze plaque would read, in part, “In Honor and Remembrance of Michael R. Moldover, 1940-2025.”
For local park users, the outcome would determine whether a well-used vista point along one of the city’s most scenic trails gets a new, city-owned amenity at no public expense.
The Recreation and Parks Commission is scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 1, in the City Yards Public Works Building, Second Floor, at 233 West Mountain Street, in Pasadena. For more information call (626) 744-7311 or visit https://www.cityofpasadena.
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