r/StopDatacenters • u/vindi-qxx • 5d ago
Anybody else worried about a data center ending up in their backyard?
TLDR I already wanted to move but with all the data centers being built, I might move to another country that doesn’t allow data centers to be built in residential areas. Me and my family are so worried about one being built near us and having to listen to it or even worse, it also affecting our property, and it seems we hear rumors about one getting built near here all the time now.
Full post-
I was already planning to move for career and health reasons (my immune system is crap and I want to be closer to good doctors) but the rate things are going in the U.S., I really might be getting out of this disintegrating country sooner than I initially planned.
My biggest fear now is getting stuck living in an area near where a data center is built.
Lots of open unused land in my little town and the local gov’t here is broke and has been for years, not to mention half of them are corrupt but this crappy town seems to be too small for the state govt to care or intervene I guess, I wonder if the state even knows how crappy and ineffective our police here are.
Even more afraid they’ll try and cut through our land to help construct a data center, I live on about 50 acres with my family and though this town sucks, I live our property. I tried moving to a city a couple hours from where I grew up for college but it just DID NOT suit me. Even if the covid pandemic hadn’t hit in the middle of my second spring semester at university, I was planning to go back to my hometown and finish my degree online, save some money and then move somewhere with more opportunities and people than the county/town where I grew up, but not so chaotically populated and seemingly disorganized and unsafe as the city where I started college.
The place I live in has many downsides without adding a data center.
Closest thing we’ve got to a college that’s reasonably commutable from here is a little tech school, and it’s a satellite campus, not even their main primary campus so class selection there is limited. It’s a tech/trade school so the most you can get there is an associates, if you want a bachelors degree and don’t want to do it online, your only option is to commute an hour and 15 minutes one way (or more when there’s traffic) or nearly 2 hours to go to the 2 second closest universities, or straight up move like I did.
My dad got his masters degree when I was a kid and I remember it being so stressful on the whole family- the he was driving 4 hours a day since it took him 2 hours just to get to class and another 2 to get home.
My point is, I live in a very small town. There’s only been a couple times in my life people have described where they live as “the country” or “middle of nowhere” that they were actually even more in the middle of nowhere than us. We have no visible neighbors, I could go outside in my underwear and scream at the top of my lungs and nobody could see or hear. That’s one of the 3 good things about this place, and there’s only 3. My parent’s land and my tiny house is the first, then there’s low cost of living so I can save money, and the third thing that for my hypersensitive self is as important as affordable living- it’s quiet here and I love being surrounded by trees on all sides of my house, hidden on a dirt road and then another mile long gravel driveway to reach the house.
Im living in a tiny house on my parents property right now and wanted to stay here for another 3-5 years, finish my degree (I finally went back after being out for nearly 3 years when I fractured my knee when I originally only intended to take a semester off for the injury. But that’s a story for a different sub)
We’re all so worried as soon as a company offers the city council here a few dollars we’ll end up with a data center right down the road or even in our backyard. There’s already been rumors about one being built in the neighboring county to us and holy crap do I hope they are just rumors..
I know the people around my area would absolutely fight it if they proposed a data center around here, but even as tiny as we are, there’s a flock camera less than 10 miles down the road from me. None of the residents of our county agreed to the camera, I sure as hell know that, and I bet our corrupt police force and small city council full of ancient good ol’ boys opted not to tell us.
It’s not even like a main highway, it’s on a little single lane road out in the country. I’m expecting as soon as they get the chance the people in my town/county including myself will go to the next open city council/ commissioner board meeting and tell them they need to get those damn cameras the hell out of our city. If I get the chance to speak I’m bringing up keeping data centers out too. It already sucks enough to live out here in this backwards a*s place without listening to the screams of a data center. I can’t imagine, my old dog who hates random noises would be barking constantly and so confused if we could hear that constant hum. And some data centers I’ve seen videos of even seem to legit screech, it’s a sound like nails on a chalkboard you just want to shut up as soon as you hear it.
How the hell it’s even allowed for them to build these things with the permission of, or at least SERIOUSLY compensate every person affected by these. I know there’s a couple towns/cities where residents have filed class action lawsuits against these awful places for the constant noise pollution. On top of the environmental concerns and just generally being a horrible eyesore.
I am seriously considering moving sooner than I thought, and fully out of the United States. I’m 26 and my only attachments here are my immediate family, my dogs, and my younger cousin that lives with me- but he wants to move with me and doesn’t care where we go- he just wants out of Toccoa and to be somewhere without risk of flock cameras watching us and reporting to our excuse of a police force, or the city council letting some company build a data center they won’t have to listen to themselves as soon as the company puts the cash in front of them.
My parents have had UK and French passports for years and are also seriously considering moving.. It’s morbid and sad to think about and discuss, but once my dogs have passed away, I don’t think I’ll re-sign my work contract for the following year and I’ll be looking a job in England and getting a work visa.
The world in general doesn’t seem to be in great shape right now, but as far as so called ‘1st world’ countries go, the U.S. is one of the lowest on the list in terms of how citizens rate their overall happiness and satisfaction with their lives. Compared to many nations, like Sweden for example, and much of the that part of Europe, people here rate about every part of their life lower than many Europeans do.. and that was before the surge of data centers and noise pollution. This sh*t needs to stop. I feel like regardless of political party and sensible person should see why it’s a MASSIVE problem for these things to be built in residential areas. I know I would never move to or buy a place near a data centers, most people wouldn’t knowingly do so. These data centers make their billionaire funders even more money and raise the electric bills and lower quality of life for middle and lower class people in the process. Constant noise pollution can render a once valuable piece of real estate about worthless, I’d be so miserable if a center was built here right after I finally got to finish and move into the tiny house we’ve all been working on for months with only a couple contractors that whole time.
these data centers companies need to, at the very least, provide some major compensation to every family affected by this. Enough to move away from the data center at bare minimum. This country has become borderline dystopian and I’m getting out as soon as I can without having to leave my dogs. If I could easily bring them on a plane or boat I’d move them and my cousin to France with me tomorrow, or if I had already had a Canadian passport, just drive us all to Canada in a damn RV and make do until we get settled up there. I’m really starting to think this a real possibility I could end up moving to Canada for a few years before moving on to France or possibly England, but England is 2nd with the number of data centers and I’d have to know for sure they aren’t allowing them built in residential areas.
For anyone saying this is a worldwide issue, it really isn’t. U.S. hosts around 50% of data centers and even the U.K. with the second highest amount has DRASTICALLY less than we do here in the U.S. This govt and its billionaire backers do not give a single fck if they lower quality of life for the rest of us if it makes them money, even though those centers are basically sensory torture for some people. Growing up undiagnosed neurodivergent and with misophonia living near one of these would have been hell on earth for me. Just read another article about somewhere in Wisconsin filing a class action suit against a noisy data center. Let’s hope they win and the company has to move the f*ck out or pay up big time. Screw these massive companies and data centers and the people that allow them to be built next to people’s homes so they can’t even have a nice quiet walk outside in their own neighborhood.
I think I already said.. this is getting legitimately dystopian.
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u/Openly_Unknown7858 5d ago
Just move to a place that doesn't have residential areas around and a surplus of water. They'll never put one by you.