They are much worse indeed. Much stronger pollution, noise and almost zero jobs for the local population (big box stores at least offer some poorly paid jobs and pay some local tax). Tells you pretty much when even big jox stores are that much better.
About that, big-box stores end up costing municipalities they set up shop in property taxes vs. local shops in traditional downtowns.
On top of driving out local competition to become the only game in town, and completely screw that town over when they eventually leave, they also cost the city in taxes.
So basically, datacenters are big-box stores on steroids in terms of being a net loss for the communities they set up shop in.
They are much worse indeed. Much stronger pollution, noise and almost zero jobs for the local population (big box stores at least offer some poorly paid jobs and pay some local tax). Tells you pretty much when even big jox stores are that much better.
About that, big-box stores end up costing municipalities they set up shop in property taxes vs. local shops in traditional downtowns.
On top of driving out local competition to become the only game in town, and completely screw that town over when they eventually leave, they also cost the city in taxes.
NJB covers this and all the other negatives of the big-box model here, and this applies double to datacenters.
That was my point. AI data centers are even worse than that.