By: Diane Benjamin
I attended enough of the first discussion yesterday at the BCPA on data centers to know that those present want nothing to do with building one in Bloomington. I heard from an attendee that lots of different people showed up for the evening event with the same views.
The biggest reasons why are:
- massive water usage
- massive electricity usage leading to higher rates for citizens
- noise
- loss of farmland
All of these are completely legitimate reasons why a data center should never be built here. Mayor Brady and City Manager Jeff Jurgens sat onstage listening to one public comment after another. Most speakers were well-spoken and backed their points with solid research.
One attendee from Illinois People’s Action argued that organizing could stop all AI. That’s unrealistic—AI will advance with or without a local data center.
AI is simply a tool. I personally use Grok after ChatGPT lied to me and acted overly familiar. Parents should keep their kids away from it.
A real concern is AI’s potential to create a massive surveillance state. Several people mentioned Flock cameras and how police can now track vehicles across town via license plate readers. That’s convenient for law enforcement but devastating for privacy.
City Manager Jeff Jurgens mentioned that hyperscale data centers could be what companies want to build. These are the huge facilities used by companies like Google, Amazon, Meta (Facebook), IBM, and Microsoft.
Some attendees think local opposition will stop a data center from being built here. It won’t. Government consists of people with agendas — elect the wrong ones, and their agenda wins every time. They don’t care about consequences.
One speaker cited the Coliseum as a perfect example: despite overwhelming opposition, the government built it anyway. Progressives aren’t concerned with long-term results — only with taking the next step.
The day the government tells you a cell phone is required at all times outside your home is the day communism defeats the Constitution without firing a shot.
That’s a short path when you remember a few years ago the unvaccinated were close to being ostracized from society. Government lied for compliance, we must be smarter than that. Stay alert, involved, and vote.
Type: “Explain hyperscale data centers” into a couple different AI programs and just your browser. Compare the results.
We were sold numerous wind and solar farms all over the county on the fact that they would supply much needed revenue streams for taxing bodies and land owners. Same thing here. More and more farmland disappears. They touted “higher property values” in this forum. Quite likely but who wants that now? That just leads to even higher property tax bills for the homeowner just trying to survive. High utility rates go even higher. Same winners and same losers every time with this kind of development. Illinois is not a good place to live if you are the “little guy”!