Hundreds of residents, faith leaders and youth activists packed San Jose City Hall on Thursday night, Oct. 15, for a community meeting on data centers, with many calling for a moratorium on new ones, KTVU reported.
Mayor Matt Mahan pushed back: "It isn't realistic for us to live in a world where no new data centers are built."
What residents want
Speakers raised rising utility bills, noise, environmental harm and grid capacity, and said the approval process is moving too fast.
"You're not talking about one or two data centers, you're talking about 30+ data centers," said San Jose resident Misrayan Mendoza, who also faulted the city for weak outreach in languages other than English.
Sruthi Manoj of Silicon Valley Youth Climate Action said "the community hasn't been given proof yet" that data centers can be a net benefit, and pointed to neighboring Santa Clara maxing out its grid capacity.
Matthew McHale of the South Bay Interfaith Climate Justice Network said, "I think data centers harms both," meaning people and the planet.
What the mayor says
Mahan said the internet, phones and apps "rely on this digital infrastructure, but that doesn't mean we should give anyone a pass."
He said city staff's draft standards on labor, clean energy and water recycling, which are not final, are "literally category-defining."
An anti-data center demonstration followed outside City Hall.