Top Tweets for #NotInMyBackyard

🦔Voters in Festus, Missouri, a town of 14,000, removed four of eight city council members after their representatives approved a $6 billion AI data center covering 360 acres without adequate public review. A lawsuit alleges the city held illegal private meetings on the project. A petition to remove the remaining council and mayor is circulating. This is part of a growing national pushback: New Jersey rejected a data center for a public park, Maryland paused projects after community opposition, Missouri's St. Charles is pursuing a permanent ban. An Indianapolis politician's home was shot at 13 times over a data center dispute, a 20-year-old attempted to firebomb Sam Altman's home, and two more people were arrested Sunday for shooting at it. My Take These towns are being asked to absorb 360 acres of industrial infrastructure, higher electricity bills, water consumption, and temperature increases, with the benefits flowing entirely elsewhere. The economic argument for data centers has always been jobs and tax revenue. When residents look closely, the jobs are minimal and the tax arrangements often involve years of abatements. The violence is deeply concerning and shooting at people's homes is not a legitimate form of protest regardless of how legitimate the underlying frustrations are. What I'd also say is that when communities repeatedly express opposition through official channels and watch their elected representatives approve projects anyway, in marathon sessions where public comment was overwhelmingly against, the conditions for more extreme responses get created. The political class treating this as a small-town problem is going to find out it isn't. Hedgie🤗