March 21, 2018
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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.”