9/11 Sign Advocate Still Seeking Altadena Support

Retired pilot and Kinneloa Mesa resident John McDannel does not quit easily.

Two months after the Altadena Town Council declined to endorse a project that would merge planned "Welcome to Altadena" signage on New York Drive with a design that would commemorate the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, McDannel has gotten approval for temporary signs on New York Drive and a memorial event to be held on the 10-year anniversary of the attacks next month.

As reported earlier this week in the Pasadena Star-News, McDannel's signs will be installed on either end of New York Drive and will read "In Memorial of September 11."

He is still also hoping to eventually get permission to install permanent signs and create a larger memorial, both in the segment of New York that is in Pasadena.

McDannel's connections to the Sept. 11 attacks are personal: He knew the pilot of one of the hijacked planes, and his son-in-law worked in a building next to the World Trade Center.  His daughter later served in Iraq following the attacks.

He's long been known to neighbors in the area for driving around in his truck planting trees, both on New York Drive and some of the neighborhood streets up in Kinneloa Mesa--on a drive around the area with Altadena Patch on Tuesday he pointed out dozens of trees he had personally planted and watered over the last 15 years.

McDannel had sought support from the Altadena Town Council for a sign that would be on county land on the bridge just east of the intersection of New York and Altadena Drive.

That is also the site where county and Town Council officials had been discussing installing "Welcome to Altadena" signs - McDannel's proposal to the Town Council was to have the 9/11 memorial message on one side of the sign.

In July, the Town Council voted to recommend the installation of those signs without any sort of other message on them - meaning no 9/11 memorial.

McDannel told Altadena Patch in an interview that he felt the council had a "knee jerk reaction" in rejecting the idea.  However, he added, the idea to merge the memorial sign and the "Welcome to Altadena" sign was never his proposal in the first place.  That idea came from county planners who wanted to "kill two birds with one stone," in McDannel's words.

As the Town Council was not in favor of that plan, McDannel is hoping instead to put the permanent signs at the Altadena Drive and Sierra Madre Boulevard interesctions of New York Drive in locations that would not interfere with the "Welcome to Altadena" signs.

Though the locations would put the signs in Pasadena city territory, McDannel said he hopes to get full support from Altadena, Pasadena, and Sierra Madre - he noted that he has gotten the backing of the Altadena Rotary.

As reported in an earlier , McDannel hopes to eventually take the project beyond just the signs - he'd like to create a full scale memorial on a lot on the side of the road about midway through New York Drive.  He has also met with Pasadena and county planners to discuss a proposal  to see the wash above the Eaton Canyon Dam turned into a park with a year-round lake and biking and hiking trails.

Photos of McDannel's plans can be viewed at right and the full plans can be seen on his website.