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

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

#251

Post by godwinson__4-8 » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 7:20 AM UTC

GolfPopper wrote: post #208

godwinson__4-8 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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> Is he forcing people to login to Instagram or Facebook? Yes. The "no one is putting a gun to users' heads" argument is irrelevant when it comes a trillion-dollar company invested in behavioral modeling deliberately driving engagement. "Social media apps are 'deliberately' addictive to users" (2018) https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44640959 "Addicted by Design: The Hidden Psychology Behind Social Media’s Hold on…

What an interesting instinct for civics you have.

You get to strip hundreds of millions of people of individual agency on the basis of your stumbling through a handful of headlines, all adhering to the recent trend of reducing human conduct into some neat pathology.

What does this portend for your politics? How to manage this vast polity of addicts? What regime of involuntary commitment will you come up with to force virtue into those that have slipped into this addictive vice?

Maybe while you're at it you can repeal the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. After all, surely this is what John Quincy Adams was after as he expounded upon the nature of American freedom in such flowery terms. The power to moralize over your fellow man, too feeble to resist the likes of fermentation, Facebook or the fruit.

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

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Post by watwut » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 7:21 AM UTC

godwinson__4-8 wrote: post #141

Barrin92 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 t…

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> He's so evil but the vast majority of Americans can't give up his products?

Hello maynmar genocide. Hello selling weight loss products to teenagers algorithms determined as having low self esteem.

Yes, in winner takes all economy, one person can be prettt evil and have all tge economic power.

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

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Post by DaSHacka » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 7:21 AM UTC

kulahan wrote: post #229

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Have you tried actually listening to what critics have to say? Nimby I wouldn’t dismiss the critics as NIMBY. They are closer to fuck it, nowhere. Some opposition is just anti-AI or misinformed about e.g. water use. But most of them have legitimate complaints about, on one hand, noise and power prices and, on the other hand, the shocking lack of contribution to local employment or taxes from these structures mintin…

I’ve heard there’s misinformation regarding water use. As far as I’ve heard, these data centers use quite a bit. I imagine they just use them for cooking and spit it back out warmer (though if we’re going to do that, I’d prefer we do it cooling a nuclear power plant, personally…) Is this not accurate? Are there any good resources that aren’t like… these companies being super honest about how super good they are?

I haven't heard of many open-loop cooling systems like that in HPC datacenters. The majority I've seen use closed loop, where the water never leaves the system. Similar to most watercooled gaming PC rigs.

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

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Post by Terr_ » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 7:25 AM UTC

ashleyn wrote: post #159

tptacek wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The funny thing about data center concerns in Chicagoland, where I'm hearing it, is that data centers are better neighbors than almost any other commercial real estate. The data centers in Aurora are surrounded with prairie green space; everything else, including the nicest office buildings, are a sea of eyesore asphalt parking lots. I get there can be real concerns, locally-specific, about energy usage (again: they…

The reputation of datacenters precludes them due to some high-profile abuses of locals, as well as cities overcommitting brittle and unprepared infrastructure to them. Consumer energy prices in 13+ states hiked because the grid was unable to meet the sudden demand. SpaceX's datacenter in Memphis used gas turbines to rapidly deploy Colossus before the grid could be upgraded, which resulted in an increase in local air…

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

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Post by esseph » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 7:25 AM UTC

bob1029 wrote: post #194

ComputerGuru wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would have the same concerns but note that backup generators aren’t just run when needed but also have a weekly/monthly quota of hours they need to run for both testing and keeping them in shape.

Approximately 80% of the homes in my neighborhood have standby generators that all need to exercise weekly. You think it would be a nightmare but you almost don't even notice when Wednesday rolls around unless you are standing outside at just the right time. Sewage lift stations and cell towers have generators that need to exercise as well and I've never once heard a complaint about this situation. Your local municip…

> These AI data centers shouldn't need backup power at all.

They could be training a model or two for months.

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

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Post by [deleted] » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 7:27 AM UTC

locknitpicker wrote: post #156

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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. This is utter nonsense, and reeks of a desperate and deep denial. I mean, you might as well rationalize your denial by claiming they don't like you because they don't like you. Have you tried actually listening to what critics have to say? Nimby doesn't just pop up o…

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

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Post by scheme271 » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 7:27 AM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #167

ashleyn wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reputation of datacenters precludes them due to some high-profile abuses of locals, as well as cities overcommitting brittle and unprepared infrastructure to them. Consumer energy prices in 13+ states hiked because the grid was unable to meet the sudden demand. SpaceX's datacenter in Memphis used gas turbines to rapidly deploy Colossus before the grid could be upgraded, which resulted in an increase in local air…

The infrastructure thing I get! The water thing is, I think, baloney, but depending on where you are there's energy generation concerns. Seems totally reasonable to me for local political bodies to demand that new data center projects account for what they'll do to the local power grid, and, obviously, running jet turbine gas generators is not a reasonable answer to those concerns. What frustrates me about the new po…

It doesn't help that at least one datacenter operator and possibly more promised municipalities in Arizona that they wouldn't use their water and then secretly used millions of gallons. This in the middle of water shortages.

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

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Post by xboxnolifes » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 7:28 AM UTC

RandallBrown wrote: post #63

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…

> 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 .

"You criticize society, yet you participate in it. How curious."

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

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Post by Eueudhsbsj32 » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 7:31 AM UTC

culi wrote: post #198

veunes wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the city thinks data centers are incompatible with certain areas, it should encode that through zoning, permitting, utility pricing, noise limits, etc.

We have those but data centers keep skirting them. Data center developers often classify their properties as "light industrial" or "warehouse" to bypass regulation. These lobbyists are also big enough to push state legislation that strips local towns and counties of land-use authority. Noise regulation is also sorely lacking because it's usually based on absolute decibel and ignores the impact of low-frequency contin…

Sounds like a good opportunity to update the rules on noise pollution then.

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

#260

Post by hackernud3s » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 7:35 AM UTC

I think it's ironic that we have no problem putting DCs next to a prison but god forbid we put them next to a zoo which is the same thing but for animals.