## Colophon tags:: [[&process]] [[&article]] [[ai infrastructure]] url:: https://www.persuasion.community/p/data-centers-are-democracys-new-battleground?r=ifpt&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true date:: [[2026-05-12]] %% title:: Data Centers Are Democracy’s New Battleground type:: [[clipped-note]] file:: published:: 2026-05-12T01:20:08+05:30 [Click to Archive](https://web.archive.org/save/https://www.persuasion.community/p/data-centers-are-democracys-new-battleground?r=ifpt&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true) %% archive:: ## Notes From: https://x.com/fukuyamafrancis/status/2053927844536037788 > Democratic debate on artificial intelligence is increasingly taking place not in Washington but in village council chambers. Here, small communities who never imagined their voices were relevant to the dialogue on AI are demanding answers to why local governments are signing away land and energy infrastructure to hyperscale data centers. ^07275c > [!note] > On the data center conversation, I think large parts of local/small communities have seen so many adverse effects from large scale industrial buildout (and general degradation of quality of life). A lot of this is coming to a head on the question of data centers. So much so that the actual science or accurate information about water/energy consumption does not carry a lot of weight. In some ways, the prior effects of industrial buildouts have accrued debts that are reflecting in the discourse/approach to data centers. ^4ce0d9 > In the process of generating the computing power (known as “compute”) essential to AI leadership, these hyperscale data centers consume staggering energy and water resources with profound impacts on communities. The new data centers may provide no benefits to the citizens in these communities, yet in town after town, deals are being quietly struck between Big Tech, developers, and local officials before residents hear about them. >Perry Village is an egregious case. In July 2024, Mayor James Gessic and the Village Council entered a purchase agreement with Province Group, a California-based developer, to buy 163 acres of village-owned land at $8.4 million. The scale of the data center has since expanded to 230 acres, one-sixth the size of Perry Village itself. The [data center](https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/crowd-packs-perry-village-hall-to-protest-data-center-project-as-tensions-rise-across-ohio), which borders local homes, farms, and the school baseball field, would include six buildings of about 250,000 square feet each and consume 200,000 gallons of water daily. > [!note] > Do these numbers hold? (accounting for a tendency to get them wrong / misinterpret them quite often) > Few of the village’s 1,600 residents heard even a whisper of the plan in the year after the deal was signed. Mayor Gessic and key council members had signed NDAs with Province Group before negotiations began. Binding elected officials to silence through NDAs has become a standard feature of data center development across Ohio, and their proliferation points to a deliberate strategy. It wasn’t until June 12 of last year, when the Council voted to approve the new zoning ordinances for the data center, that the village began to talk. > [!note] > Yeah, ok, the NDA thing is ridiculous and dangerous. > “The contract they signed says they have to deliver a clean deed free of any referendum, or any deed restrictions with proper zoning in place for their intended purpose,” says Commissioner Beverage. “Either a data center was being built or they were going to financially ruin the village.” > [!note] > Insane! > Setzer’s proposed response is to create a state-funded bipartisan legal defense fund that would send experienced lawyers to any village, township, or city that finds itself outgunned by a developer. > > “It would cost Ohio two and a half million dollars a year and save billions in poorly negotiated tax abatements,” says Setzer. ## Full Text ![[Data Centers Are Democracy’s New Battleground - 20260512 - fulltext]]