Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo • Hacker News Board

Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#131

Post by silisili » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 4:46 AM UTC

welcome_dragon wrote: post #110

I live in Nashville. This story is all over the place in general. People assume all the things like it will make their rates go up, etc. I'm not opposed to data centers in general but the location is right next to our zoo which has grown tremendously along with the city over the past twenty years. Took my kids there when they were small and we still have a couples membership. It's very difficult even here to get fact…

Agreed and disagreed. It is a terrible precedent for sure. On the other hand, government inaction, usually hiding behind arcane codes, process, and blame circles gets really frustrating. In that world, they'd still be waiting on a court date(if even) when the data center cuts its ribbon.

It's kinda nice to see them just drop the nuclear option on something the people didn't want. At this point, it's kinda nice to see a government accomplish anything nice at all.

Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#132

Post by ekianjo » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 4:46 AM UTC

warkdarrior wrote: post #122

gilthelander wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> You can't plant trees in a rail yard. Why not?

because of... rails

Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#133

Post by Barrin92 » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 4:47 AM UTC

godwinson__4-8 wrote: post #115

Barrin92 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>the American way of life our child’s will inherit is going to mean something very different than what it meant for us. I'm fairly certain the American way of life is exactly what happened here, that citizens of a locality exercise the rights over their land to stop random tech bros from ruling over them with their AI and China mania. I recommend John Quincy Adams 4th of July 1821

Really? You think the American way of life today is comparable to 1821? You think the standard of life you enjoy today is because of the triumph of local parochialism? The United States has always been ruled by elites [1]. The revolution was in large part kicked off because the Proclamation of 1763 rendered the westward land investments of the wealthy worthless [2]. Why would reading 1821 July 4th propaganda be instr…

>You think the standard of life you enjoy today is because of the triumph of local parochialism?

My standard of life involves democracy and self-determination. Americans are 'pathetic' about that because it turns out at the end of the day liberty is a bit more durable of an idea than buying yet another pile of junk.

If you think you can just throw fortune cookie economic slogans at people to convince them they want to live in Mark Zuckerbergs or Elon's Borg cube you're in for a few rough decades, on both sides of the political spectrum that is.

Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#134

Post by no-name-here » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 4:50 AM UTC

arcanemachiner wrote: post #90

RandallBrown wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's the unfortunate thing about the current climate around datacenters I always get a chuckle when I see people complaining about datacenters on the Internet .

I like having my garbage picked up at the curb, but I wouldn't want to live downwind from a landfill. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/we-should-improve-society-som...

I think that’s how DCs mark an exponential growth in NIMBYism and its acceptance - we’re already seeing city-wide, county-wide, even state-wide bans, even in states where much of the state is very low density. If this kind of NIMBYism becomes accepted, I expect to see similar broader bans against multi-family housing, mass-transit, etc.

Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#135

Post by shit_game » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 4:51 AM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #124

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But data centers basically take land and resources and generate almost nothing for the local community. The jobs are minimal after the data center is built. It's a giant windowless box. I would much rather have a strip mall in my community. Strip malls often have local businesses as tenants (so money made by the business then gets spent in the community), and they provide services the local community can interact wit…

Office buildings take land and resources and generate almost nothing for the local community, and are islands in vast seas of asphalt and traffic attractors to boot. But nobody moralizes office buildings, just data centers, despite the fact that data centers are usually objectively better neighbors.

This was a very significant talking point through most of covid, actually. Granted, there is an orders-of-magnitude disparity between office buildings and data centers regarding both their resource consumption and their local financial return through employment. Its no surprise that the attitude towards data centers is much more negative.

Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#136

Post by walrus01 » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 4:58 AM UTC

magicalist wrote: post #68

mixdup wrote: post #24

I don't know what DC Blox was going to put in this particular datacenter, but they are a "traditional" colocation datacenter company. Maybe this one would've been superdense GPUs with a jet engine as electrical generator causing all kinds of noise, but it's also just as likely this would've been a project that 5 years ago no one would've batted an eye over, and wouldn't cause any issues in the local neighborhood That…

> I don't know what DC Blox was going to put in this particular datacenter, but they are a "traditional" colocation datacenter company. Maybe this one would've been superdense GPUs... 50 MW for 69k square feet definitely points to relatively dense GPUs. Regardless of what DC Blox might have built five years ago, everyone knows what kind of datacenter is going to be booked solid right now.

As modern datacenters go, 69,000 sq ft for a whole facility is REALLY small. Only some portion of that 69k is going to be actual conditioned space once you subtract all the ancillary services, things like security office, staging area, bathrooms, electrical breaker panel rooms, etc. It's almost like boutique/niche sized compared to the things that are going up in Texas, Indiana, a few other places. I know people building hyperscale size stuff that would almost call 69k sq ft hobby sized.

Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#137

Post by tptacek » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 4:59 AM UTC

shit_game wrote: post #135

tptacek wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Office buildings take land and resources and generate almost nothing for the local community, and are islands in vast seas of asphalt and traffic attractors to boot. But nobody moralizes office buildings, just data centers, despite the fact that data centers are usually objectively better neighbors.

This was a very significant talking point through most of covid, actually. Granted, there is an orders-of-magnitude disparity between office buildings and data centers regarding both their resource consumption and their local financial return through employment. Its no surprise that the attitude towards data centers is much more negative.

Not really, no? I'm not saying office buildings are "just as bad" as data centers; I'm saying they're substantially worse. It is much more unpleasant to have an office building next to your home than it is to have one of the CyrusOne Aurora data centers. The data center is --- seriously go look at them --- basically like having a park next door.

Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#138

Post by silisili » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 4:59 AM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #124

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But data centers basically take land and resources and generate almost nothing for the local community. The jobs are minimal after the data center is built. It's a giant windowless box. I would much rather have a strip mall in my community. Strip malls often have local businesses as tenants (so money made by the business then gets spent in the community), and they provide services the local community can interact wit…

Office buildings take land and resources and generate almost nothing for the local community, and are islands in vast seas of asphalt and traffic attractors to boot. But nobody moralizes office buildings, just data centers, despite the fact that data centers are usually objectively better neighbors.

Office buildings presumably are filled with bodies who get paid, who will spend some amount of money in the local economy.

I'm not sure data centers could make the same argument.

Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#139

Post by duskdozer » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 4:59 AM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #124

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But data centers basically take land and resources and generate almost nothing for the local community. The jobs are minimal after the data center is built. It's a giant windowless box. I would much rather have a strip mall in my community. Strip malls often have local businesses as tenants (so money made by the business then gets spent in the community), and they provide services the local community can interact wit…

Office buildings take land and resources and generate almost nothing for the local community, and are islands in vast seas of asphalt and traffic attractors to boot. But nobody moralizes office buildings, just data centers, despite the fact that data centers are usually objectively better neighbors.

Nobody? I do, and I've seen plenty others.

Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#140

Post by JumpCrisscross » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 4:59 AM UTC

ericcumbee wrote: post #125

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But data centers basically take land and resources and generate almost nothing for the local community. The jobs are minimal after the data center is built. It's a giant windowless box. I would much rather have a strip mall in my community. Strip malls often have local businesses as tenants (so money made by the business then gets spent in the community), and they provide services the local community can interact wit…

Property Tax revenue, and they are not a drain on services like schools, roads, fire department, police department etc. I'm watching this debate in a town that i am from and where I live. Our choices are pretty much be swallowed up by growth from neighboring cities and become a bed room community or solar farms and data centers. The downside with becoming a bedroom community is you risk creating a negative tax base.…

Opposition to data centers is like 90% hatred of Silicon Valley and its obstinate elites. One they amplified by trying to build these things sneakily.