Source: EconLog
by Jeff Polet
“On a chilly Thursday evening last December, citizens in Dorr, Michigan, a small community about a half-hour south of Grand Rapids, attended a town hall meeting to discuss the possible construction of a data center on the north end of town. Some of the attendees came from families who had lived in Dorr for generations and, worried about the disruptions posed by a new data center, came ready to defend their town. Instead, to their dismay, they discovered the township supervisor had, without a public hearing, already signed an agreement. Microsoft, never bothering to send a representative to meet the public, now held the deed to more than 250 acres of prime farmland, an arrangement citizens knew nothing about until everything was signed and sealed. With the land already sold and the ink dry, the citizens’ impotence turned to repressed rage.” (09/23/26)