Retiree Eileen Castle hasn’t been able to enjoy her backyard since a data center moved in next door in Lowell, Massachusetts, bringing noise, fumes, dust and water mist.
But a few streets away, contractor Louis Haas is grateful to Markley, the company running the facility, for redeveloping an abandoned site he says was rife with drug use.
Dubbed “the Dungeon” by some locals for the imposing black silhouette it casts over a residential neighborhood of this old milling city, those opposing views encapsulate how data centers are polarizing communities across the United States.
Republican-governed states, with their looser regulations, host most of the country’s current AI build-out. But in liberal-leaning New England, some feel betrayed by their elected representatives, while others fear being left behind if the industry is curbed.
– ‘Nothing but noise’ –
Over the din of construction behind a spiked fence, Castle, 82, told AFP her great-great-grandparents bought the property…