We're baaaack!!!!! Back from Hiatus with questions about the Data Center!

🎙️ We're back! After a short hiatus, MoodSwings returns with a topic that's creating major controversy in our hometown of Pittsburg, California.

A proposed data center has residents asking some tough questions:

• What exactly is a data center?
• Why was Pittsburg chosen?
• Who approved the project?
• What are the real benefits?
• What are the potential risks for nearby neighborhoods?

In this episode, Jae and KMac break down the technology behind data centers, why companies are building them across the country, and why so many Pittsburg residents are voicing concerns. We discuss the potential economic benefits, environmental impacts, water and power usage, noise concerns, property values, and what this could mean for the future of our hometown.

Whether you're for it, against it, or simply trying to understand both sides, this episode gives you the information you need to join the conversation.

💬 What do YOU think? Would you welcome a data center in your neighborhood? Let us know in the comments.

Follow MoodSwings on all social platforms for new episodes every week.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

We're back. Yes, after a little hiatus, your favorite opinionated besties are finally back behind the microphones. I've so missed you, K Mac, and in this sense. Of course, we always talk, but being able to be on mood swings and get all moody, that's I know.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

I know, I know. I missed it too. I didn't realize how much I missed it until it was gone. So yes, I'm happy to be back with you, my bestie and full of facts.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

I know, and I think we got ourselves a hot topic to return on. So, and speaking of hot, it is, I believe, hitting 111 today in Vegas. That's just that's disrespectful. It's disrespectful. I actually have to talk to their manager. You know what I mean? So I, in lieu of having a regular sippy drink, I decided to go a little boozy shake today to fit the weather. Yes. Boozy shake. A boozy shake. I mean, once I tell you what it is, you're gonna probably want one. People who's listening is definitely gonna want one. And the first place I've actually had this was I was in Jamaica with my husband, and we were at a swim up bar, and they called it the Dirty Monkey. And I said, What you call me? Right. And they said, right, thank God that he was black too. So, but he gave me it what it is, is it's a light or dark rum mixed with either a cream, but I had ice cream put in there, vanilla bean ice cream, banana, and chocolate syrup. It is awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Wait, there's a whole hold on, there's a whole ass banana in the drink? Like a half a banana. Half a banana. It depends on how much banana you like, I guess. Do you eat the banana? It's blended, so yeah. Oh, it's got a drink in it. Okay, I'm thinking like a whole ass half. Yeah, a big ass dick and link to the side, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Got a hook in it, type banana in the drink. I take it that way too. But anyways, but but you know, so you can also, so you can have the drink in a uh with with rum, but you can also do it with vodka if you wanted to as well. So uh, but I think the rum adds a little bit, like kind of like a like a cold banana's foster's.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

You didn't have a whole ice cream sundae in a fucking drink that you put in your drink.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

No, you ain't talking Miss Bloody Mary with a whole chicken thigh, and you're thinking a pickle, some bacon, a small child. A lot of shit's in that. Don't listen. And one I can't olive. Ooh, I can't, I can't with the olives in the pimento. One olive. I want like three olives in the pimmetos. I know so briny, I can't.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

I just I'm not drinking a Bloody Mary today, and I'm definitely not, even though your drink sounds appetizing to some. I I as a minority cannot stomach milk or cream, let alone in a with alcohol, I can't let everybody in there.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

I forgot. You got the sensitive tummies.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

How can you do alcohol and like dairy? That's just that's crazy. The inflammatory. That's screaming I to the B to the S. You know what I'm saying? Man, that's screaming butthole.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

It's screaming the what is the new explosive diarrhea that's happening? And then that's what you need, the STI? Yes, crypto chrono cryptolite. Crystal chronic cryptolite. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Yeah, no, I'm just drinking a good old chilled strawberry margarita with a tahine rim. That is my go-to for summer, all summer long.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Now that we're in my tasty too. So I yeah, I can I can go for that next time. But I mean, hey, I have plenty of hot days behind me. Or I'm sorry, in front of me, in front of you. Yeah. Yeah. I have plenty of them behind me too. But I have plenty more behind. So I'll definitely try and drink one of your drinks too, because that sounds pretty tasty. Maybe less taheen, because you know the heartburn.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Oh my gosh. I'm the the crazy thing is that I need to like, and you dick it, you need to find a graceful way to enjoy my drinks with Tahen because I'm talking in mid-conversation. You will see my tongue lick that whole outer rim because I want the Taheen to drink ratio in my mouth. And there's no way to do that and be cute. So I have to find a cute way to try to do a taheen rim.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

Yeah, that's that's different. You might well, but you can do them like um, like you do shots. Just put a little bit on your on your hand. Yeah, that's like a caviar shots. Yeah, see? So you make it cute. Or is it like I'll licking the whole glass?

SPEAKER_01 4:28

It's the whole glass is getting licked down, and I have to like cover my face while I'm doing it so people aren't looking at me like in some pervy weird way, you know? Because I'm like licking up the c yeah, okay, got it. Understood. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

Licking up the clip.

unknown 4:42

What?

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Licking up the glass. Oh, I thought you said something this and that. That was censor that. You this is what you sound like because you know you had that lisp. You said because uh licking up the clit. I said the clit. No, I didn't say that. Crazy person. Yeah, we'll go ahead and take that one off. Anyways. So, so well, that goes with my mood today. My mood is, my mood is actually uh, I'm just being quite I'm concerned and and I'm inquisitive of what's happening in my old stopping grounds in the Bay Area. You and I've had an off-recording conversation, a little bit about it, but uh I dived into this research to trying to find out because have you ever had a topic that you've heard going around social media and then you you want to have an opinion, but you don't quite know all the information? Yeah, you're informed.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

Yeah. I appreciate that about you and I is that if we're not informed, we're not about to jump into the conversation like some no-dolls and don't know shit. We like to take our time, research.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

So, yes, understood. Good, good. So, because what I want to talk about is one of the hottest topics that's happening in the Bay Area, more the East Bay, right? It is the AI data centers. And in Pittsburgh, would that be progress or problem? And I want to know, so having come from my native town of Pittsburgh, and I've been removed from it, but still in the Bay Area in a in a neighboring city with my bestie for about five years before I moved to Vegas, um, I gotta be honest with you. I knew nothing about this. I didn't know anything about this until I started to hear a huge uproar about it. And they think the same for you, is that correct?

SPEAKER_01 6:21

Yeah, I had no idea that the data center was coming. I just been hearing all this news about it. Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Yeah, so I mean, so I just we're just trying to understand both sides because I I watched clips of a very heated city meeting with the residents and then the mayor and the vice mayor um and the council members there. And and I want to also be very transparent that mayor Dion Adams is a close friend of mine. However, I still didn't know anything about it because I'm removed. I live in Vegas, I've been living in Vegas for five years now, going on five years. And you guys are friends. You're not talking politics, you're not talking work. Exactly. So I did not know anything of this, and I didn't even know how long this has been going on. And at that time, I was in the Bay Area when this was actually being discussed. You as well, obviously. Yeah, did you know that this started out in 2017?

SPEAKER_01 7:16

That was 2024. I didn't realize it went back to 17. Goodness gracious.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

Yeah. Now let me just make a make sure I said 17 or 2018. I saw 2017, but I think it was right at the like the very end of it. So it's really, really 2018 is where a lot of the the things happen. So again, guys, we're not here to make an opinion on it. We're just trying to educate ourselves. And hopefully, through us having this discussion, we're helping you educate yourself as well. And if you are actually currently affected by this, this uh this topic, it might help you either understand more of what's going on or help you to fight against it. Not sure. Just to start as well, I can tell you why people are upset. Okay. And I'll tell you a couple of things. And I also have found and researched the actual locations of where uh cities and states of where AI data centers are and what's happening with them, which helps me kind of form more information on if it's something that I would be pro or against, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:14

All right. So let's give, let's start Jay, with giving the people a little background first on what exactly a data center is, right? Yeah. So basically, a data center is a physical building that centralizes an organization's IT operations. So it houses like network computers, servers, data storage, all those things that you need to run a computer or several computers are stored together in this one big building. They're responsible for keeping like digital information. So anything that like is uploaded to the cloud, that would be part of a data center, would have a process in that. So essentially they're really the backbone of the internet. Okay. And they're they're needed even more so with artificial intelligence. When I was a little girl, my mother worked for Pacific Vale, and I remember going into her office, and they're, I guess that would be the modern day data center at that time. I'd walk into this room and it was just like as many of those tall, real-to-reel machines as as far as the eye can see. And that was their data center. I know, right? Real to real. Right. So, in order to have like a data center, there has to be some sort of like storage there, right? So they're gonna have hard drives and flash storage and that well, the storage infrastructure, that type of stuff goes there. And it says for the requirements to have an actual data center, you're gonna have to have a power supply. So you're gonna have to use massive amounts of electricity in order to keep the servers running. You're also gonna need to have a cooling system. That means you're gonna have to have tens and thousands of servers to generate immense heat that require robust, well, I'm sorry, the the tens of thousands of servers are going to generate heat. And that's gonna require a robust air conditioning and water cooling system to prevent the generators from overheating. I'm sorry, to prevent the servers from overheating. And then, of course, you're gonna have to have security. So you're gonna need to have high levels of physical and network security. And they're gonna be used to protect critical corporate and personal assets that are gonna be in this data information storage that we keep.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

I'm glad that you brought those up just to kind of uh let people know we're really looking into this and finding out what is the pros and basically the cons of a data center and having it physically in your area, right? I noticed that um, you know, we obviously uh we like Chat GPT, we like our our cloud services. Everything we do runs on some type of AI. And so we love it. Back in the days when we were they were discussing this, but again, back I'm gonna quote around around, let's just say 2000, early 2018. In 2018, they we didn't have all this. We didn't have that much AI and all that construction. We didn't know how quickly we were going to move into technology and rely on it as as heavily as we do today. I mean, from the time I wake up to the time I'm down, I'm on my phone, I'm on my computer, I'm doing something, I'm always getting data, I'm downloading data in my brain, I'm I'm finding stuff, I'm I'm entertaining myself. Something is always AI driven, right? What? And everybody loves it, but nobody wants it where they're at. It's kind of like everybody wanna, but nobody wanna, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 11:35

I would I would also challenge the thing that data centers have been around for a long time, but they just have kind of evolved with our technology. Like when I was saying back when I would go to my mom's job back in the 80s, that was their data center, the real-to-reels, right? So it didn't, and even though I remember it being a really cold building in there, they also had to keep everything cold in there, I still don't think that it took up as much of the electricity that it needs to use today. The way that it's evolved is what's making it take so much more electricity.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Yes. And that is one of the biggest concerns is electricity. It says AI data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity. And so the residents worry, will electricity prices increase? Yeah. Will the existing grid handle it?

SPEAKER_01 12:16

Right? Our normal grids that we're using right now, the same grids that we, the same infrastructure that's been around since the 60s and 70s. We can't handle this now with this explosion of AI and cloud computing and cloud drives and shit like that. That's why we are building data centers because it can't handle it anymore.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

Yeah. One other question about that is will California have enough power during the heat waves? We already struggle with water consumption, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:44

And and massive water construct consumption is another concern, which I didn't understand at the time.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

It is, it's number two. It is. It says traditional data centers often require significant cooling. People worry about drinking water, droughts, long-term sustainability. And so for the Pittsburgh project specifically, the developer says the campus will use recycled wastewater supplied by Delta Diablo rather than the drinking water. And the city says environmental mitigation measures were included during the project approval. Do they give any more details about the water mitigation? I'm doing looking at this high level, we would have to probably make this into a series so we can really get into some stuff. But right now, it just, you know, I do have a source, which is avdigital.com. This is the one where we receive that information. But that it doesn't eliminate any concern though. So regardless of what they say, it's still an important fact that, you know, that this audience is trying to figure out is this really gonna happen? Or are we just being told that, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:41

So yeah, that's that's the thing. I want to know if we're just being told that, but I'm also concerned about, and I guess this is kind of going off on a whole different tangent that I don't need to go off on, but I'm I'm wondering prior to this data center coming into play that they're gonna use wastewater, what was happening to the wastewater before? Where where did our wastewater go prior to this? Being wasted. I mean, seriously, like, is it treated and then like where's it go? How can we use wastewater now?

SPEAKER_00 14:06

Well, I think we are using we're if it's recycled waste waste, oh my gosh, recycled wastewater, say that four times fast. If it is, I believe they should be using that to to uh water our greenery, right? Our you know, our landscapes. The ones that are created by the city.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

Well, if they're taking it from that, then what happens to that? It's just it's that's where I'm going with this. Is like, okay, if we're taking from one, what happens to what we're taking from? Exactly, exactly because something always has to suffer, right?

SPEAKER_00 14:35

Yeah. Well, this is this number three, noise. People noise. Most people imagine it's just a big computer, but the noise, because it says it's giant cooling fans, large HVAC systems, transformers, backup generators, those can create a continuous low frequency noise that is not well, if not well designed. So I'm gonna also go through a couple of cities that have experienced not so desirable effects. I'm not gonna do a whole Aaron Brockovich thing, but it's probably it's basically bordering the line of that, right? This is the reason why we're fighting that, right? So air pollution, okay? Normal operations don't produce much direct air pollution, but the concern is usually about backup diesel generators. So if something goes down, they're gonna be running those. How are you running those? Diesel. Diesel is gonna create pollution, right? So we're trying to look at the future. It's like, oh, everything's, oh yeah, it's fine and great when we start. Okay, what about 10 years down the line when you gotta cut, you gotta break down CERN? You know what I'm saying? Do some shit. Okay. Things are gonna happen. I know that'll be a whole other topic. And that would be quite concerning. Yeah, see what you did there. I know, I know. Now, traffic is another concern because when construction begins, you know that will be uh what is that, leverage? Yeah, leverage. Leverage is most likely gonna be shut down, right? Full with trucks, heavy equipment, road closures. After construction, the traffic will be much lighter, but this is gonna be a what, a four-year plan with that? Four or five? Oh, so it'll take it that long for it to be built? I believe so. I'll I'll double check just to make sure it's not gonna be, it's not like a KB home. You slap up and two weeks later you got a fucking house. So that gives me plenty of time to get the fuck out of here. And jobs, okay? Jobs as well. People hear a two billion dollar project. Well, and they think that thousands of jobs forever. But in reality, these are temporary jobs. Only for the life of the construction. Then we're gonna Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

So I'd heard, I don't know how true it is, but I heard that data centers don't have a lot of uh employees. Yeah, that everything is kind of self-ran other than, you know, it's a AI center, other than I guess physically having security guards to physically be on site for security. And, you know, I I don't even know what other I'm like, janitors, but I I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

I don't know what kind of waterers, professional waterers of the system. What are you gonna do? It's only groundskeep and security, is all you need. And well, obviously, people somebody who knows what's going on in the system, they can't just have people who are just lame. They gotta have people who understand, built it and are running it, right? Or or managing it. It is not gonna be in any comparison to the mass amount of jobs it will create temporarily, which is great, but then it, you know, then what do you do then? I guess you just move on to your next project. Yeah. So the um another concern they have is property valued. And nobody truly knows. So some studies suggest little effect. Others show nearby homes are worried about the appearance, the noise, and the industrialization of their area. Remember, it's taking over the golf course.

unknown 17:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

And the golf course is a beautiful, serene, quiet area. And now you're gonna slap an entire data center with all that big machinery in it right there. The the the eyesore, first off, is probably gonna have a bunch of security gates and shit.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

Yeah, I heard it's a big concrete, windowless building. Yeah. Much like the little data servers, you know, much like the building that the data servers were in back in the 80s when I would go with my mom. Much like that.

unknown 18:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

You know what, you know what I what I would think would be very useful is to repurpose the underground bunkers over Concord Hill. I don't know if they're still storing military stuff there, which I don't believe so. Why not reuse that? It's already underground. How cool and I'm it's cool, but how cool is that to have it cool or down there because now you're actually underground.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

Well how about that work with signal and stuff like that? Would it be able to pick that stuff up underground? Oh, I would assume so. I mean, how though? How would it get signal underground when antennas for storage and sale and all that type of stuff is all above ground up high?

SPEAKER_00 18:53

What is this? Well, all the HVAC, all the the generators, all that stuff and all in the actual servers housed down there. The the generating um the windmills and the and the the the antennas or whatever we're saying is the the it's is above ground. But everything else is housed down underground. But right now, everything is above ground. Everything, right? Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

So that's why I'm saying there's some issues with that land that the Concord. Well, I know there's some issues with the land with the Concord Novel with weapon station because they have been talking about trying to turn that place into like luxury condos and all type of stuff for years, and they can never kick the trail from the soil white fertile, which we're gonna call it. They couldn't yeah, they couldn't get the soil to be used so that you could do that. And they've been trying to do that for a minute now. Oh, wow. So that might be an issue there.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Yeah, that makes sense. Um, because again, for a city, and I can see the reason why they're they want it because they see, you know, taxes, they see uh money for the city. Right. But the residents from a different perspective is what about us though, where we have generations upon generations that live in, you know, in these towns, and it's slowly turning into something that they can't even recognize anymore because the a city of Pittsburgh is is is a town, it's not an industrial place like Concord or something like that, you know?

SPEAKER_01 20:14

So And you know, I mean that's just like down, that's just like Antioch. Antioch has been zoned now for all these dispensaries and it's becoming a different a different a different place. Not because I'm saying, you know, dispensaries are bad or read is bad. I'm not saying any of that. I'm just saying that when you get a certain type, a certain level of industry and you get a bunch of it, it's not just like one dispensary, it's not just one data center. The next thing you know, they go, they see a data center going there and it's thriving. So then they send other uh what's the word I'm looking for? Industrial type of positions there as well. And then next thing you know, your city that was once your town is now producing all type of it's it's now a million. I mean, if it was a little mini Silicon Valley, then that would make price prices go up in terms of housing values and things like that. So I don't think that's probably a good comparison.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

No, I'm saying that's what the city is is coining it as something like that. Someone from the city coined it.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

Yeah, of course they're doing that because they want to put their spin on it.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

Right. And but the residents are like, I that's not what we bought in this town for, you know. It sucks uh either way, but there are benefits. So as I said. So down that vein, I said supporters point two tax revenue and construction jobs, as temporary as they are, they're still jobs. Yeah, high-tech investment, better fiber infrastructure. You are definitely can you hear me now? Yes, I can, because you're right next to me. Yeah. Economic development. So um the Pittsburgh project was unanimously approved in 2024 after the city completed its environmental review, and the officials have continued to defend uh the project while increasing public outreach as the awareness has grown. Now, the here's where the problem is they're upset about those eight topics that I said, but mainly what they're also upset is that they've felt that they were not made aware of this. Granted, again, this started way back in 2018. But again, to be honest and to be transparent, I knew nothing about it. You know what I mean? Granted, I moved out of that city, but I'm in a neighboring city. And in all the the ways that this conversation is when I tell you, I should have known about it, especially when they came back with the receipts of how they did inform the city.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

Well I was going to say, let me ask this, because I know that that for everything that gets on the agenda, right? It's made public. And these meetings and hearings are always public. They're never cloak and dagger. I will see on the city council. In fact I even had a friend they used to be like I'm on the city council meeting tonight. We live in a, you know, we don't live in Pittsburgh, but she'd be like, we're I'm going to city council meeting tonight because they're going to vote on such and such. I'd be like, I don't give a shit about that city council meeting I'm not going to that. You know what I mean? And so and so it's all made public and I guess people probably saw it and did the same exact thing. But now here's where it's unfair because of your lack of awareness, now you want to get mad and act like they try to pull a fast one over on you when you this is why we should be listening to our city council, seeing what's on our agenda and going to the meetings because this type of shit could happen all day every day.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

Yes, let me tell you this another thing I discovered one longtime resident quoted that in the news covers that he had known about the project since 2018 and attended the meetings for years. He argued that there wasn't enough resident participation. And not that the meetings never happened he just was like there wasn't enough representation from our our people to be against it, right? Because it was more just the council going, okay, anybody? No? Okay. All right let's vote for it then. All right everybody say aye.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

I mean it's it's the same thing we've been hearing since we were old enough to vote. If you don't vote, they're going to vote for you.

SPEAKER_00 23:46

And and your vote matters. Every vote counts. But to be fair, there the city of Pittsburgh was not provided an opportunity to vote for it. It was done legally but it was just that the the main concern was they were not informed, but they were. So it seems underhanded to go, oh, you're just going to do this right under our our nose. Technically they didn't but I don't know if they banked on this people to to know because after years and years of non-participation they probably said oh we can slip this into the agenda and nobody gonna know right so I think that's where it would go towards I you know it might be an unpopular opinion about this but I feel like you know that is not at fault of the city of Pittsburgh.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

They did their job to informed it is the fault it's and I don't even want to say it's the fault of the residents because it's not the fault of the residents either but me included in this me too it is up to me us included to be informed on what is happening in our towns and locally name local neighborhoods because of shit like this. So I feel like there needed to be some sort of person on council on city council that was opposing it to be like hey I'm going to spend my campaign dollars and send out a special notice via postcard to every resident in Pittsburgh letting them know that this special election is taking or not special election but that this uh agenda is being brought to city council so you guys get out and go and make sure you're informed.

SPEAKER_00 25:12

Now you know what a step a step above that would be a step is have a liaison to make sure that your community is involved. Because it is also the responsibility of the city to know that the community is involved.

unknown 25:23

Right.

SPEAKER_01 25:23

Here's the thing though but at what point does it what point do you say I have made these things available for you? If you you know you can lead a course of water but you can't make a drink. At what point do you say I've made these things available for you I've been transparent I've showed you everything that's coming to the council I've given you a month in advance notice or however notice that they give you and you still decided not to come so at what point now I got to send out special postcards. I got to get a liaison I got to do all this shit to get you informed. See at some point I'm like we got to take start we got to start taking responsibility for our shit.

SPEAKER_00 25:54

Do you know why? Because whenever whatever decision is made someone's never going to be happy right we're always true that it's like it's always someone's never going to be happy. But let me tell you all the ways that they did try to inform us okay yes please so they published a legal notice of public hearing in the East County Times they I didn't even know the East County Times was still going but this I'm telling you they posted the notice at City Hall okay they posted it at the city's public notices webpage they mailed notices to property owners within 500 feet of the project area. Wow they sent notices to local agencies whose services could be affected they sent notices to anyone who had previously requested such notices hearing on next door that's the part I said now next door I should have known because everybody always on next door talking about shit and then sent the next then they took that took a step further and sent the next door notice directly to subscribe users in neighborhoods adjacent to the project site.

SPEAKER_01 26:54

Now listen at some point Pittsburgh residents come on girl you stepping on Hoka territory you about to get Hokered up and listen you already know I'm 10 toes down they can't scare me but at some point god damn it when do you take responsibility and say okay maybe I should have I should have done my part and now for the folks now let me say this too for the listeners that got those notices that saw those notices back in 2018 and you went you've been rallying ever since good for you good on you for getting up and doing something about it. But for the folks that had all these possibilities and did nothing and now they want to be in an uproar because they saw an Instagram post, shame on you. I don't want to hear that shit.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

But but okay this is true. This is true. So before 2024 because remember you said you only heard of it at 2004 the city also says that the public No no I just heard of it I just go ahead sorry. Oh no yeah you heard of it and thought that it was started in 2024 right it went back to 24 yeah okay so the it says the public process stretched back to 2018. It also included community meetings environmental review scoping public comment opportunities planning commission hearings city council hearings because remember it took almost eight years 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 almost nine years right well I wonder too though but remember we did have a pandemic in the middle of that so I wonder people's focuses that their focus began to shift because people are losing loved ones and fighting a global pandemic.

SPEAKER_01 28:21

They're like I don't give a fuck what's going on in the city. Nothing could be as bad as me having to stay 24 hours in my house and worry about my children and you know what I mean? So maybe was Chat GPT back in 2020? I don't even remember it being that no no no no it wasn't but I'm sure that they knew that technology was coming and and regardless like I was saying we knew that we needed new infrastructure from back from the 70s. We knew that we needed this new instruct infrastructure right just with the advent of social media with the advent of cloud you know storing stuff in the cloud all of that type of stuff changed everything. And so and then then the explosion of um AI just probably made it that much more urgent.

SPEAKER_00 28:57

But I I'm wondering so part of me starting to wonder now maybe if they didn't have a pandemic would it had a would they have had a bigger turnout maybe I made that comment about they're most likely to say we could put this out as many times no one's going to attend based upon the history of the attendance of any other city council meeting. You know what I mean? So that's why so I would like to see what what the attendance rate was right did it change after the pandemic and it quite if might have have done so um we've had plenty of residents move in and out of them newer residents may not even be aware of how the process works right and during COVID these meetings were they being held online or were they still being held in person? It did skip well you know what it did skip a couple years because I think it was on whole probably because of COVID. So because it started 1718 then it kind of went into jumped into 23 24 26 like that. So it I think that the whole process that's the reason why I drawn on so long. So but but what did people did actually attend so the records show that residents and organizations did participate before 2026. A higher number of it probably not just as what was stated from that gentleman he said I've gone to all of them and there was not a lot of people there. So right so but it says several possible explanations of more than one could be true of why so many uh people are still saying they never knew they said this is a possibility okay just don't shoot me I'm just saying publishing in a newspaper posting at city hall or mailing nearby um property owners satisfies legal requirements but many people don't regularly check those sources so they're kind of still saying those are things that we normally don't check. Have we ever been just because we're an adult we should know to do so or have we ever been encouraged to to do these sites or there are things that that publicize and say go to your site if you want to speak that you have heard here's the websites you know I've never seen commercials like that I don't really watch TV in that sense but maybe there's there did have they put things out to make sure hey if you didn't know about this website on the you know call you know call 877 call now you know we do all that I remember those you know true true and I remember like on public access TV remember they used to have these type of meetings and stuff like that that don't have public access TV anymore like the rock the vote commercials and stuff like get people involved and know oh I didn't even know that was there.

SPEAKER_01 31:14

Oh shit and and I agree with that I agree they may not know that it's there okay but what about the folks that were getting within the 500 yard radius that were getting actual millers in the mail are we not getting the mail right what about that posting on so yeah you talk about legal requirements but also posting on next door no there's no legality about you have to port post shit on next door and people love next door there Karen's are on next door all day that's why I said Karen Rich.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

If it was in a a next door then I would have known about it that's what I'm thinking right but I was out of the I was out of town at that time I was out of I'm no longer I'm connected to this next door in this area. So I don't get that news so it could have been but I don't know you know so but then but then they said remember in addition to the next door they forwarded it to the people adjacent to those people on the next door. Because you know you could choose neighborhoods and they chose those and and put those out too but again I don't know did the I mean I don't catch everything on next door I do whenever I go on there see a bunch of shit I don't want to see I hear that all the time but no I have not heard hide nor hair about any AI. Also if they're using words like data center I think a lot of people didn't even know what a data center was until just recently you are on my my page girl that's what was I was gonna say because the project evolved over time. Remember it was starting in 2018.

SPEAKER_01 32:33

We're in 2026 now in 2018 no one had heard the word data center before they didn't know what that meant.

SPEAKER_00 32:38

And it wasn't at the time it said residents who heard about a technology park years ago may not have realized that it would eventually include a very large AI focused data center. Tech territory what is it go ahead technology park to me says Silicon Valley people are there physically working in their designers there's uh developers 100% IT now that to me seems like it's completely changed into something different. Like now nobody's gonna be there. Well of course everybody would vote for someone going oh these are really jobs right and now all of a sudden oh if you want to be security sure there's not gonna be any other jobs like that for you there.

SPEAKER_01 33:15

Yeah so see that's that trickery I was thinking too I was like when you say technology center I'm thinking if we're getting a Google ooh yes I love it like let's do it.

SPEAKER_00 33:22

Man I've been trying to keep we've been trying to have babies and have our babies over there and just be playing ping pong and just just riding around on segues and just having a hella fucking good time.

SPEAKER_01 33:31

Oh my gosh have you like that con that that campus in well my girlfriend lives in Cupertino and she took us to all these cool little restaurants around there and there's a big giant apple and we could sit in the apple. I mean it was just it was wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 33:43

So that's kind of yeah right here technology center that's what I'm thinking and I'm like yes bring it on not deserves not a big concrete windowless building that's humming and making sounds and giving you fucking migraines and using all our waters in yeah so um we said this before AI wasn't a a household topic in 2018. So back then people weren't thinking about chat GPT massive AI computings or power demands or modern you're thinking real to real like your mom's back in the day right that's what I'm thinking. Right. So by 2026 public awareness and concern has now grown dramatic because now we're learning we're just learning chat and grog and all these things we're learning that now and so as we're learning it we're learning either the good and the bad and what the the effects are on it. And now we're like wait is it really that good? We had a topic up the dangers of AI you know now I can see the concern different and again I'm looking from outside in now because I don't even live there. But I think my my views would be quite stronger if I actually was living there. But anyways many people simply weren't paying attention that's just the last the last reason they said um local land use meetings often have low attendance see unless a project directly affects someone's neighborhood or becomes controversial. Well it did and 500 people plus the adjacent um and the businesses that that could be affected were made aware right so but again I says everybody want to be but don't nobody want to be right 100% yeah oh I love it go ahead oh wait a minute now it's gonna affect me fuck that you know so there's about one two three four five about five cities with data centers one being in Ashburn Virginia and the pros are massive tax revenue just like they said that that's what we're looking for technology investment and employment. That's what their their pros are the cons are noise complaints land use conflicts and electrical demand.

SPEAKER_01 35:42

In Arizona I did not know how they was using hello water they have to be used hello water. Well here's my thing too I'm I'm like and and this is the thing I like you said we didn't you and I have talked about this I didn't feel like I had enough information to chime in because I didn't really understand what a data center would use and why it would like poison the town and why people were so upset about it. I really honestly thought oh it'll bring jobs and you know what's going on but there's still part of me that still feels like the city council for Pittsburgh they're required to live in Pittsburgh so they are going to live in this actual city that they voted to bring this to which I'm assuming is do they live in that area though?

SPEAKER_00 36:28

Because again remember if you're in Marcos San Marcos you're not affected at all.

SPEAKER_01 36:33

Well maybe not maybe not you have to live in to be on the city the Pittsburgh City Council and I looked it up you have to reside in the city of Pittsburgh. So maybe they're 500 miles or what is it 500 not miles 500 square feet uh radius from it but even so this is their town this is their community so their children their family members their mothers their fathers their husbands their cousins their whoever you're communing with someone in the city that may be affected by this and I think personally for people that run for civil servant like public office type of things myself included because I feel like you're running for these type of offices because they're not getting paid a lot you're running for these offices because you care about your community you care about the constituents you want to do better for your town. This is why I have thought about running for some sort of city council because I wanted to do better for my town. The point I'm making is that it's hard for me to believe that these council members that have far more information than we have on the actual real details of what harm it can do, if any, would still vote to have something like that in their town when they when they have to share this town with their mother and their sister and their brother and their children and their husbands and their families and their teachers and their pastors and their, you know what I mean? It's a whole community of people. And I don't know maybe I'm a maybe I'm a bit naive but I just want to believe that I want to get me out of people and I want to believe that no one would vote in interest to harm their community so that their town could get some some extra tax revenue. That seems crazy to me.

SPEAKER_00 38:06

Right. I mean and and absolutely I want to know that too because of course I'm I'm from Pittsburgh and I want to know that everyone has the the best um intention.

SPEAKER_01 38:15

Of course of course I I believe that too so I think we need to think around not necessarily thinking about you know get rid of the data centers. No we can't what we need to do is think of a way that we can safely build data centers. Like for instance when you're going out highway four towards the Antioch bridge and they built that huge massive Amazon campus out there why couldn't the data centers be built something like that? Like somewhere out the way is it because they need to have the proximity to water what you know what I mean like why why does it have to go smack dab across the street from an elementary school and in a neighborhood you know what I mean? Why can't it go out along the outskirts where the 500 mile radius is not going to hurt anyone because there is no one in that 500 mile radius.

SPEAKER_00 39:00

But my question is now now we're looking at the actual structure of the city of Pittsburgh where would that be though? I mean they have this huge pile of land right now they would have had a huge pile of land right there but it still would have been in the residential area right in the Buchanan area but then they built what 500 homes there?

SPEAKER_01 39:16

So well here's the thing maybe Pittsburgh isn't the city where it needs to be at maybe over there by the Antioch Bridge over towards there's that little sandbar that's way like when you're going over the bridge you see this little sandbar that's right off the right off the shore. I don't know you know I'm not a seismic person. I don't know about the land but you know couldn't you build it somewhere like that? You know what I mean? You have the access to water there's no residential people around there well I think it's because the city of Pittsburgh is viewing a totally different lens because they're doing it for revenue.

SPEAKER_00 39:49

Revenue if they give it to the city of Antioch then what the hell did that do for us, right?

SPEAKER_01 39:53

Well I mean I don't I feel like it needs to be in some rule incorporated or I'm sorry unincorporated part of the city where it can do the least amount of damage. And right there is not the place it needs to go because there's a school there there's there's residential homes there. There's a park that's adjacent to that. You know what I mean? There's a lot of stuff going over there on that Leland corridor. If they really want in the city of Pittsburgh up San Marco where they put those new houses if they even went further up the hill all the way up there all the way up where there's no hills. You know what I mean? I mean where there's no houses. I don't know I don't know I would I would like to get more information as to how this spot was chosen and why do they need to have a proximity to water do they need to have a proximity to uh open space like I want to know why this was chosen because there's always we can't not do it but let's just find a way where we could do it with the least amount of harm.

SPEAKER_00 40:49

Well if you think about it the golf course it is across from the canal right isn't that a water source?

SPEAKER_01 40:55

Where's the canal?

SPEAKER_00 40:56

Oh the canal yes yes you're right one that you mean and Hannah almost go through I was that's exactly the thought that just popped in my head when you said that I was like oh yeah the one we almost ran into that's right you know so good times um but yeah that like there's there's their that it's already there it's already it doesn't have to be something I mean they're probably gonna have to do something to transfer them what over there but they already have water able to filter through that area.

SPEAKER_01 41:22

So because from what I read is that they need enough water to power a small town these these big data centers. So I don't think even if it did have that little pond which they don't I don't that wouldn't be enough water. How crazy do we even have like we said the infrastructure to to do our own city right now geez we we have brownouts we have rolling blackouts I would also like to see that once this money starts being generated for the city of Pittsburgh what is this money earmarked for are we going to see free preschool for for children free uh you know housing for the homeless are we what are these tax dollars going to be used for I don't want another Pittsburgh sign. I don't want that you know what I mean I want to see real change I want to see real change that's gonna impact the community as a whole I want to see continued um uh rebuilding of old structures and um saving historical ones and putting money into no I don't I don't care about any of that shit. I want to see community based type of programs. Uh let's buy more school buses and give kids free rides to school so we don't have to put our kids on the city bus. Let me see um you know activities for the teens that are after school where they can go to that's free. You know what I mean? That they can use computers they can use the internet they can teach classes to kids on how to use AI and coding and shit like that. Build in a state of the art community center that anyone in the community can use for free. I want to see programs like that made that's going to more enrich the community and better the lives of the people that are going to be living there and that's going to be affected by this.

SPEAKER_00 42:50

We should be the top of our game then like you said for our children like you said everything that that we could benefit from that structure AI wise should automatically be something that's shouldn't have to be a paid program should all be free all that as well but also beautifying the city of Pittsburgh because we are still an old town they they're you know revamping old town and you know we need to do a little bit up there uptown we gotta do that under the cusp of of Antioch and Pittsburgh got to do that too you know there's some things that we need to do to beautify it but I think that if if I am understanding that must generate a mass amount of money.

SPEAKER_01 43:26

Yeah so so these little small community programs that we're talking about nothing it's pennies and a dollar what else are we putting it towards that's what I'm saying in addition and I and I agree but I just want to take care of our community first you know what I mean like I want to take care of community first and then we can beautify the old you know Pittsburgh museum you know what I mean and the old those old uh where I used to have the photography studio those old historical building centers that do all that but to begin with and when we do it we want to hire Pittsburgh residents that are going to do that work. You know what I mean? It's just like you have to keep pouring into the community to make the community better. And Pittsburgh you know when I was when I was a kid growing up in Pittsburgh used to be like I'm getting out of Pittsburgh well now as an adult it's like I still have this fondness for it because that's what raised me that's where I came from and I would love to see it thrive and to be better. Absolutely yeah thank you for enlightening me you taught me a couple of things today about the data center that's coming and I'm gonna keep my eyes glued to everything else that's going on it so I can understand how it's gonna affect affect people that I know and love.

SPEAKER_00 44:29

Eyes glued ears to the pavement because I want to know again I I have a little bit more interest in it too is because of my friend is also getting a lot of brunt of that as well. And I wanted to also say that yeah although she was not mayor at that time she was a council member who did vote for it. But again it was voted for back in 2018 I think this the that the project has evolved from there.

SPEAKER_01 44:51

And like I said I don't think that people the people that have decided to step into these roles to to represent this community is gonna vite is going to vote against their own interest.

SPEAKER_00 45:03

Like that especially Dion if they actually really know her and her heart she is one of the most caring individuals who does love her community and that's why she has always been there and I've never heard any complaints about her before until she stepped into that position. It's like any official role you're gonna have people as soon as you step in the role automatically hate you. Don't even know you. Right. So yeah but but again I'm I want to be I don't want to be biased I just want to know what's best for my city. So absolutely we'll keep on um looking at that topic. But guys ponder on that question I that I said and if you guys want to ponder on it if you guys would like to respond back or have any comments please make sure to email us at mood at moodswingpodcast dot com. Again that's mood at mood swing podcast dot com. K Mac, oh my God I'm so glad we're back I'm so glad we're back but the fat boys are back. I'm sad that we have to end it we can never be back. Wait oh hold on I said never mind never mind I love you K. Love you Jay que