Several Oaklanders say that Behring Companies can position its proposed data center as an outlier to the larger-scale facilities that’ve come under fire for high energy and water usage, but their feelings won’t change for the most part.
That’s largely because of distrust in the developer’s intentions and environmental impacts that centers have had on communities in other states.
“Keep data centers out of Oakland,” said Bryan Ortega, 30, who has been an Oakland resident for years. “I don’t like data centers, I don’t agree with them.”
Behring is in the early stages of what it calls an innovation hub on 20th Street that includes about 20,000 square footage dedicated to a data center. The project is a single piece in a four building project that would provide housing, office space and parking. Its addition could help bring jobs to the struggling downtown area, according to the developer and Oakland City Councilmember Carroll Fife…