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Data centers are now a midterm issue, even in Brooklyn

On Thursday evening, I slipped on my neon yellow heels and a floral mini dress. It’s New York, so I can wear whatever I want to a midterm election event full of media types, techies, policy advocates, and, well, does anyone else even exist at these things? I walked into the dimly blue-lit Brooklyn warehouse and was surprised to see the room already filling up. Newsreel, the media company founded by former Forbes and Newsweek reporter Jack Brewster, hosted the event, and the lineup was heavy-hitting. Kenneth Schlenker, co-founder of the focus app Opal, sat down for a fireside chat about “the state of attention,” and Aryan Banjan, who built the campaign management software Barza, gave a midterm forecast. I, meanwhile, was moderating a panel on data centers. Brewster said the goal was for people to “put their phones away and talk to each other about the election, five days out.”

周四晚上，我穿上荧光黄高跟鞋和一件碎花迷你裙。这里是纽约，所以我可以随心所欲地打扮自己，去参加一场挤满了媒体人、科技从业者、政策倡导者——好吧，除了这些人，还有其他人会出现在这种场合吗？——的中期选举活动。我走进布鲁克林那间灯光昏暗、泛着蓝光的仓库，惊讶地发现房间里已经坐满了人。这场活动由前《福布斯》和《新闻周刊》记者杰克·布鲁斯特（Jack Brewster）创办的媒体公司Newsreel主办，嘉宾阵容十分强大。专注力应用Opal的联合创始人肯尼斯·施伦克（Kenneth Schlenker）进行了一场关于“注意力状态”的炉边谈话，而开发了竞选管理软件Barza的阿扬·班詹（Aryan Banjan）则对中期选举进行了预测。与此同时，我则在主持一场关于数据中心的专题讨论。布鲁斯特表示，活动的目的是让人们“放下手机，在选举前五天互相交流”。

As the evening progressed, however, one topic consumed nearly every conversation: AI, data centers, and the backlash against the growing technocracy. Lately, as a tech reporter, I’ve noticed a growing chasm between tech and everyone else. I spend most of my days talking to people who see the benefits of AI, who are so ambitious in building it and so optimistic that it will succeed that, when I talk to people beyond the tech world, I forget how ugly it all seems to them. Outside the tech bubble, data centers and AI have become such an intense ballot-box issue that they could sway some midterm races on November 3.

然而，随着夜色渐深，几乎所有的谈话都围绕着同一个话题：人工智能、数据中心，以及对日益增长的技术官僚主义的抵制。作为一名科技记者，我最近注意到科技界与其他人之间的鸿沟正在扩大。我大部分时间都在与那些看到人工智能益处的人交谈，他们对构建人工智能充满雄心，并对其成功抱有极大的乐观，以至于当我与科技圈之外的人交谈时，我常常忘记在他们眼中这一切看起来是多么糟糕。在科技泡沫之外，数据中心和人工智能已经成为一个激烈的投票议题，甚至可能影响11月3日的一些中期选举结果。

A recent report from Data Center Watch found that almost $200 billion in data center projects were delayed, stalled, or blocked in the first half of 2026 due to political and community opposition. Meanwhile, states like Pennsylvania, Georgia, Texas, New York, and Virginia are considering more guardrails and transparency around data centers’ rapid development. Hundreds of new data centers are planned in Virginia alone, a state already nicknamed the “data center capital of the world.”

“数据中心观察”（Data Center Watch）最近的一份报告显示，2026年上半年，由于政治和社区的反对，近2000亿美元的数据中心项目被推迟、搁置或叫停。与此同时，宾夕法尼亚州、佐治亚州、得克萨斯州、纽约州和弗吉尼亚州等州正在考虑为数据中心的快速发展设置更多的护栏并提高透明度。仅在弗吉尼亚州，就有数百个新的数据中心计划建设，该州已被戏称为“世界数据中心之都”。

A fireside chat with New York City Council member Chi Ossé, just before my panel, set the tone. AI came up near the end; Ossé said he doesn’t really use it. To me, though, he didn’t seem to be for or against it. He mostly emphasized that he would like to see tech executives held more accountable and trillionaires like Elon Musk taxed more. He described himself as a democratic socialist, but a “law and order” one. When CEOs talk about a technology that could deplete 10% of human civilization, he said, “they should be called to testify in front of Congress.”

在我的专题讨论之前，与纽约市议员Chi Ossé进行的一场炉边谈话奠定了基调。谈话快结束时提到了人工智能；Ossé表示他并不怎么使用它。但在我看来，他似乎并不持支持或反对的态度。他主要强调，他希望看到科技高管承担更多责任，并对埃隆·马斯克（Elon Musk）这样的万亿富翁征收更多税款。他称自己是一位民主社会主义者，但属于“法律与秩序”派。他说，当首席执行官们谈论一种可能消耗人类文明10%资源的技术时，“他们应该被传唤到国会作证”。

My panel was up next. I moderated a discussion with Maia Woluchem, a technology and human rights researcher, and Hilary Flint, an environmental and public health advocate, about data centers. As I took the stage, I decided to get a better read on the crowd. I asked, “Who here is pro-AI data center?” and was promptly booed. Our conversation covered a range of topics and emotions. People are upset that big tech companies appear to be cutting secret deals with local officials to build billion-dollar data centers. In some cases, zoning rules make it unclear what is being built until it’s too late to protest.

接下来是我的专题讨论。我主持了一场关于数据中心的讨论，嘉宾包括技术与人权研究员玛雅·沃卢切姆（Maia Woluchem）和环境与公共卫生倡导者希拉里·弗林（Hilary Flint）。当我走上舞台时，我决定先了解一下观众的立场。我问：“这里有谁支持人工智能数据中心？”结果立刻引来了一片嘘声。我们的谈话涵盖了一系列话题和情绪。人们对大型科技公司似乎与当地官员达成秘密协议以建造价值数十亿美元的数据中心感到不满。在某些情况下，分区规则使得人们在抗议为时已晚之前，根本不清楚正在建造的是什么。

At the same time, people are struggling with the cost of living and doing everything they can to hold onto what’s left of the American Dream, while tech leaders talk about AI replacing workers, or even humanity itself. Residents feel they have lost control over what happens in their communities, and they worry about the environmental and health risks. The panel agreed that data centers are the physical embodiment of people’s fears and anger toward the tech class and the rapid pace of technology. “What is a life worth?” Flint said when I brought up the benefits that some communities have seen from data center build-outs. People still protest, she said, because they “value their lives a little bit more than a temporary check.”

与此同时，人们正在为生活成本而挣扎，竭尽全力守住仅存的“美国梦”，而科技领袖们却在谈论人工智能将取代工人，甚至取代人类本身。居民们感到他们已经失去了对自己社区事务的控制权，并担心环境和健康风险。专家组一致认为，数据中心是人们对科技阶层和技术飞速发展的恐惧与愤怒的实体化体现。当我提到一些社区从数据中心建设中获得的利益时，弗林说：“生命值多少钱？”她说，人们之所以仍然抗议，是因为他们“比一张临时支票更看重自己的生命”。

The panel after mine featured NewsNation host Batya Ungar-Sargon; political strategist Morris Katz, who worked on Zohran Mamdani’s campaign; and Vox’s Astead Herndon. They were supposed to be talking about the future of the Democratic Party. But once again, the conversation shifted to data centers. Ungar-Sargon noted that some labor unions support data centers because of the jobs they promise. (Reports show that data centers create many jobs initially, but those jobs are not permanent once construction ends.) “There used to be a lot of pride in a community in the Rust Belt about very ugly, enormous buildings in their communities because everybody worked there,” she said, nodding to an earlier comment I’d made about data centers being ugly. “And they knew that building represented prosperity for themselves, stability for their children, and a future and a piece of the American dream.”

我之后的专题讨论嘉宾包括NewsNation主持人巴蒂亚·昂加尔-萨贡（Batya Ungar-Sargon）、曾参与佐兰·马姆达尼（Zohran Mamdani）竞选活动的政治策略师莫里斯·卡茨（Morris Katz），以及Vox的阿斯特德·赫恩登（Astead Herndon）。他们本应讨论民主党的未来，但谈话再次转向了数据中心。昂加尔-萨贡指出，一些工会支持数据中心，因为它们承诺提供就业机会。（报告显示，数据中心最初会创造许多就业岗位，但一旦建设结束，这些岗位就无法长期维持。）她点头回应了我之前关于数据中心很丑的评论，说道：“在铁锈地带的社区，人们曾经对社区里那些非常丑陋、巨大的建筑感到自豪，因为每个人都在那里工作。他们知道，那座建筑代表着他们自己的繁荣、孩子的稳定、未来以及美国梦的一部分。”

Herndon noted that Vivek Ramaswamy was booed for making a similar point in Ohio, a Rust Belt state. “I just want to reinforce the lack of consent happening,” he said. “Because that’s true among Republicans in those places and I’ve watched it.” Katz was also skeptical. “It’s the same people who have taken so many union jobs away,” he said. “The same institutional powers that have robbed labor and working people of jobs and profit. Now coming back to essentially finish the job and take whatever scraps remain.”

赫恩登指出，维韦克·拉马斯瓦米（Vivek Ramaswamy）在铁锈地带的俄亥俄州发表类似观点时也遭到了嘘声。“我只是想强调目前缺乏共识的情况，”他说，“因为在那些地方的共和党人中，情况确实如此，我亲眼目睹了这一点。”卡茨也持怀疑态度。“正是同一群人夺走了许多工会工作，”他说，“正是同样的体制力量剥夺了劳动者和工薪阶层的工作和利润。现在他们又回来，本质上是为了完成这项工作，拿走剩下的残羹冷炙。”

Along the warehouse walls, I noticed sticky notes answering posted questions, including “Will we ever be able to get Big Money out of politics?” “God, I hope so,” one note said. People rushed the bar when the panel ended, and techno music began to blast. They broke into small groups, where AI and data centers were once again the topic, this time in more private conversations. I asked Brewster if he was surprised by how much of the conversation focused on AI and data centers.

沿着仓库的墙壁，我注意到一些便签纸上写着对所提问题的回答，其中包括“我们还能把大资本从政治中剔除吗？”一张便签上写着：“上帝啊，我希望如此。”专题讨论结束后，人们涌向吧台，电子音乐开始震耳欲聋地响起。他们分成小组，人工智能和数据中心再次成为话题，这一次是在更私密的谈话中。我问布鲁斯特，他是否对如此多的谈话集中在人工智能和数据中心上感到惊讶。