Residents of Dowagiac, Michigan, just filed a lawsuit against a data center that allegedly generates a high-pitched whining sound — and has done so 24/7 for the past two years.
The data center, which is owned by Alliance Cloud Services LLC, a subsidiary of Hyperscale Data, used to be an industrial building that sat behind a row of pine trees across the street from the most affected residents, according to ABC-affiliateWXYZ. The site started development in 2018 and was eventually turned into a cryptocurrency mining center in 2021. But in 2024, something changed drastically when the building started emitting noise pollution around the clock. Residents say it sounds like a vacuum cleaner in their living room, and the company has offered to buy up homes from unhappy residents.
Neat. I looked it up.
Less than a mile from a wildlife refuge.
Good thing wildlife are known for their terrible hearing
Don’t sell!!! Sue the fuck out of them until they leave.
I’ve heard there are other ways to be sure.
In a totally unrelated note, Have you ever noticed how pretty fire can be?
Hyperscale Data CEO William Horne told the residents directly in a special council meeting that the site is pivoting away from cryptocurrency operations towards AI computing and advanced robotics, and that it’s spending $100 million to achieve this.
Why would anyone outside the business give a shit about this? Why would the CEO think anyone outside the business gave a shit about this?
Why aren’t the datacenter owners ever willing to spend, say, $10 million on making the data center actually quiet instead?
His real audience are the investors and people who stand to make a profit off of this data center. CEOs rarely if ever addressing anybody but the shareholders. It sounds dumb in that context, because it is, but when you realize who the real audience is, it makes sense. It’s shitty.
Why aren’t the datacenter owners ever willing to spend, say, $10 million on making the data center actually quiet instead?
I think you know the answer to this - $10 mil on soundproofing doesn’t make the Bottom Line go up. The only people they’re trying to please are the folks that profit off the company.
I think you know the answer to this - $10 mil on soundproofing doesn’t make the Bottom Line go up
Neither does buying out 10 million worth of houses.
I didn’t see anywhere in the article where they say they were going to buy the houses for that amount. Do you have other information?
'Cause otherwise - those homes have been severely devalued because of that data center. Unless the CEO was feeling generous (ha), those homeowners would be forced to sell for a bottom-of-the-barrel price. And that is much cheaper than litigation.
The company said that it’s planning to expand its operations in the footprint in the area
Residents say it sounds like a vacuum cleaner in their living room, and the company has offered to buy up homes from unhappy residents.
Very convenient for them that they converted their data centre into a property value destroyer before making this offer. I’m sure that’s coincidental.
Offer to buy at 500x the highest value it ever had, when adjusted for inflation, plus 10% of the company’s revenue going forward, and maybe I’d consider it.
More reasonable: roll back to before the datacenter was permitted for construction, find substantially equivalent houses in the general area - 20% more square footage, 20% higher value per square foot, and track their values over time until the present, and whatever the peak was, offer 20% more than that plus moving expenses… effectively 175% of “fair” value + maybe $20K.
Why be “reasonable” with unreasonable people?
That’s very decent if them, but the thing is, there’s now strong demand for those houses, as there’s a corporate buyer looking to purchase them, so the price has gone up a bit. Say by an extra digit or so added to the value.
Nah, they’ll have the government eminent domain the houses for pennies on the dollar
Can’t eminent domain for a data center that’s already built.
With the current government they’ll be able to eminent domain when they feel like it.
Can do it for expanding a data center
Are they expanding? Because the article is about noise.
It’s mainly about the noise but the article does mention
The company said that it’s planning to expand its operations in the footprint in the area, but the city said that it hasn’t received any permit applications.
The developer mentions wanting to expand in the article
Thanks, I missed that as I was skimming. Jeeze, really burying the lede there that a company already fucking up the neighborhood wants to get bigger.
Can’t have a neighborhood complaining about noise if there’s no neighborhood
Other poster isn’t being difficult, facetious, or provocative, btw. The scumbags have already done exactly that, in other US states, already. Often. The articles are all over Lemmy.
also if you have a lower interest rate than is available today (likely) then your payments are going to go up even if you buy a house at the exact same price. not to mention the cost and hassle of moving.
Yup, if say, the going rate for the houses were 400k, we’ll they should now be 4 mil each
