In Shelbyville, Indiana, 2,000 residents said no to a billion-dollar data center. The city council said yes anyway. Then someone hit record.
In Shelbyville, Indiana, 2,000 residents said no to a billion-dollar data center. The city council said yes anyway. Then someone hit record.
In Shelbyville, Indiana, 2,000 people signed a petition against a billion-dollar plan to turn 429 acres of farmland into a data center complex. They showed up to the city council meeting. They jeered. The council approved it anyway.
Then a camera caught Mayor Scott Furgeson holding one of the “No Data Centers” yard signs that had been appearing all over town.
“I only see ’em in sh***y houses,” he said. Someone told him those were working class houses. He added: “Most of them are rentals.”
His office said he was talking about property maintenance.
Two thousand people. One petition. One vote that ignored it. And a mayor who, when no one was supposed to be watching, told you exactly what he thought of the people who signed it.
Across central Indiana, the same story keeps repeating. A company arrives. Officials approve the deal. Residents raise concerns about water, noise, electricity rates, and farmland. Their concerns lose.
In Indianapolis, a councilman who voted yes on a nearby data center woke up to thirteen bullet holes in his home and a “No Data Centers” note at his door. His eight-year-old son had been home. Violence is never the answer. But contempt from elected officials is not a governing strategy either.
The economic impact study said what the council wanted to hear. The residents said what the council did not want to hear. The mayor said the rest on tape.
The tape exists now. It cannot be deleted.
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