On 2 June the Los Angeles suburb of Monterey Park held a special election on Measure NDC, a permanent citywide prohibition on data centres. More than 86 per cent of voters backed it. Because it was decided at the ballot box, the city council cannot lift it again; only another public vote can. The trigger was a proposal from the Australian investment firm HMC StratCap for a facility of roughly 247,000 square feet on a largely empty business park, backing onto a park used for weekend youth softball and bordering houses worth more than a million dollars.
Hundreds packed a council meeting in January and spoke past midnight, and afterwards “No Data Center” signs went up on lawns in English and Chinese across the neighbourhood. Supporters of the project pointed to five to seven million dollars a year in tax revenue and to jobs. The developer withdrew its application before the vote. A councilmember said the point of going to the voters was that it holds: in court the city can say the residents decided, not five council members.
So…:
Which of your decisions would look different if the people affected voted on them?
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Picture:
commons.wikimedia.org // Nandaro (CC BY-SA 3.0)