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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 21, 2018)
March 21, 2018 Page 3 INSIDE The Week in Review Arts & ENTERTAINMENT This page Sponsored by: page 2 A billboard message raises objections to noise from Oregon Air National Guard flights over residential areas near the Portland Airport, paid for by a resident of the adjacent Cully Neighborhood who is fighting the military’s plans to increase a landing technique that makes the noise from landings even louder. pages 7-11 Fighter Jet Noise Targeted Cully man uses billboards to make case about landings b everLy C orbeLL t he P ortLand o bserver Andrew Pritchard has taken a fashionable approach to air his gripes: He bought advertising on a couple of billboards. His com- plaints? Military fighter jets over his Cully neighborhood. Pritchard hopes the billboards will encourage people to sign his petition against flights over civil- ian areas by the Oregon Air Na- tional Guard, based at Portland International Airport. Specifically, Pritchard wants the Air Guard to not increase its use of an efficient – but very noisy – type of special landing called the Overhead Continuous Descent Approach. The Guard by M ETRO page 9 has used this type of landing in the past, as opposed to a slow- er, standard glide in landing, but wants to increase the hours and days it can operate the approach- es. Pritchard, who said he’s lived in the Cully neighborhood near the airport for more than a doz- en years, rented the billboards on Northeast Cully Boulevard, and along Mason and Prescott streets, to get more people to sign his no- jetsportland.com petition. He put the petition online in November but said the billboards, which have only been up for a couple of weeks, have helped boost sig- natures and more than 600 have already signed. The Air Guard tested the in- creased use of the continuous de- scent landing for six months last year, collecting data from area residents both before and after the tests, in collaboration with the airport’s Citizen Noise Advisory Committee. The Guard asked for five changes: To allow visiting air- craft for training exercises, in- crease authorized runways from two to four, expand hours of daily exercises, and allow a provision for closed pattern landings for emergency and safety reasons. Last week, the noise commit- tee released a preliminary report. C ontinued on P age 6 Housing Crisis Hits Renters Hard O PINION C LASSIFIEDS C ALENDAR pages 12-13 pages 14-15 page 15 The housing crisis has hit rent- ers especially hard, with a quarter of all renters and nearly two-thirds of all low-income renter families in Oregon spending more than half of their income on housing, according to a new report by the Oregon Center for Public Policy. The non-profit research insti- tute also found half of all renters in the state spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent and utilities — what experts de- fine as being “cost-burdened.” “Low-income renters stand at the epicenter of Oregon’s housing crisis,” said Center analyst Daniel Hauser. “Oregon lawmakers need to devote their attention and re- sources to helping these families. “When housing costs drain most of a renter’s income, families often need to make devastating choices, such as skipping meals,” said Hauser. “In the worst cases, these families end up homeless.” Oregonians of color are also suffering unduly from the housing crisis, as they are far more likely to rent and to be low-income than non-Hispanic white households, said Hauser. Hauser praised the Oregon Leg- islature’s recent decision to raise the state’s document recording fee, a move expected to generate some $60 million per budget peri- od to invest in affordable housing. He added that lawmakers need to find additional ways to boost in- vestments in affordable housing, given the depth of the crisis. “When we talk about basic needs, having a roof over one’s head is about as basic as it gets,” said Hauser. “Robust state investments in affordable housing are essential for all Oregon families to thrive.”