An infuriating story out of Taylor, Texas, north of Austin highlights how the scourge of data centers being erected around the U.S. is coming at the cost of rural communities and their citizens.
Local resident Pamela Griffin told a reporter the Bland family promised her decades ago that the land near her home would one day become a park only to have the rug pulled from under them by city officials.
Texas farmer donated land for a public park — city sold it to a DATA CENTER for $10M
— RT (@RT_com) June 9, 2026
The Bland family deeded 88 acres as parkland 'for kids to play,' but after several ownership swaps, it was sold to build an AI slop facility pic.twitter.com/b1ruJBBd6l
As the tech publication Tom’s Hardware reports, the Bland family originally granted the land to a public trust called the Texas Parks and Recreation Foundation for $10 in 1999 on the condition it be used as a park.
Just four years later, the trust granted the land to another non-profit called the Williamson County Park Foundation, which turned around a month later and gave it to the City of Taylor.
In 2008, Taylor sold the land to the Taylor Economic Development Corporation (TEDC) for $15,000 and TEDC sat on the property for nearly twenty years, selling it to data center developers Blueprint for $10 million in 2025.
According to a 404 Media report, “A lawsuit Griffin and four family members filed against the data center company was dismissed, and the judge also denied an injunction to halt construction while the case went through the appeals process. The family has filed an appeal with the Third Court of Appeals in Austin, Texas.”
The Texas Tribune reported in April that the state is already home to more than 300 operating data centers, with more than 100 additional projects in planning or development stages, plus 142 are currently under construction.
Since the facilities are sprawling in size, the vast majority of the data centers are being built in or near rural communities.
In Abilene, Texas, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and Crusoe are rapidly building one of the largest AI data center campuses in the country, with multiple facilities already operational or under construction.
A recent viral video showed RVs parked for miles, housing construction workers temporarily in town to build the massive facilities.
The ultra-conservative Texas city is experiencing a notable housing crunch directly tied to the influx of the thousands of construction workers for the Stargate/Crusoe data center projects and other builds.
Now, the average cost of renting a home in Abilene has jumped roughly $1,000 per month since this time last year.
Further highlighting the economic strain on the town of just over 130,000 is the price increase for hotels, motels, RV parks, and Airbnb or Vrbo short-term rentals, which are also heavily booked and nearly impossible to find.
Some hotels are doubling rates and some Airbnbs are seeing 100–200% price hikes when the city is at peak tourist times, according to local news outlet Big Country Homepage.
Data centers are a topic of discussion and debate nationwide, as witnessed by a recent back-and-forth between journalist Tucker Carlson and “Shark Tank” host Kevin O’Leary, who is backing a 40,000 acre facility in Utah.
Utah residents have been demonstrating against the proposed data center and other communities, such as California and Nevada’s shared tourist hotspot Lake Tahoe, are already suffering thanks to data centers sucking up resources.
Fortune magazine reported last month that “Nearly 50,000 Lake Tahoe residents have to find a new power source after their energy source looks to redirect lines to data centers.”
Posting a video to Instagram this week, country music star Brad Paisley urged his fans to sign a petition to stop the construction of a 69,000-square-foot data center just 50 yards from Tennessee’s Nashville Zoo.
Paisley said, “First of all, they don’t have the power to build this. They don’t have the water. It doesn’t belong there. It would be an enormous monstrosity, an absolute eyesore, and detract in every way from not only that zoo, but that area.”
The proposed data center in Nashville perfectly captures a growing tension of our time: nature versus the relentless march of technological progress, with the Nashville Zoo arguing in a blog post that in addition to “the power draw and impact on the local grid, the facility could add to noise and light pollution, as well as lower the water quality in the surrounding areas.”
“Altogether, those factors might have a negative impact on a number of hosted species and breeding programs, including the zoo’s famous clouded leopards, animals ‘notoriously sensitive to any mechanical noise.'”
Nashville Zoo CEO Rick Schwartz said last week that the entity has been looking to purchase the same piece of land for years, with the hope of turning it into an education and conservation center.
This problem isn’t going away anytime soon, and it’s likely that everyone in America will soon be affected by it. Hopefully, by that time, it won’t be too late!
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8 Responses
That’s why contracts were invented-to protect good will of the people against the greed of the Jewish schmucks.
How much weight does a Grant Deed have, is it a tradable asset? It should give this family priority but land and mineral rights are a slippery slope legally. With Grant Deed in hand, almost any deal can be made to override other agreements, but I could be wrong. Probably am wrong.
The Data Centers are definitely to track your every move and store it, once of course you get vaccinated right up the ass with an mrna jab. This only happens in Amerika, not China like so many wrongly believe.
Can you imagine the chaos if these data centers, once built, were to be adversely affected by an EMP. All the money counting, address keeping, gas station pumps included, would go down all at the same time. Our enemies are probably cheering them on, digitalize your entire infrastructure and taking you out (in the period of one hour) will be as easy as taking candy from a baby. WHY are we putting all our eggs in these digital baskets, destroying our water wells, lakes, and rivers so corporations can keep track of every tissue of toilet paper you use in a single day? They are all operating on empty because the money they take and the money we spend doesn’t exist anymore. This is their answer to saving corporations? Why bother, people will be wiped out and leave them with nothing to keep track of.
bunch of scumbags
These are the types that voted for Bush, believe Lindsey Graham is a patriot and John McCain was a war hero. Be a sheep, get fleeced.
DJT just reaffirmed his nomination of Lindsey Graham yesterday on truth, they’re all fucking pukes. Don’t call balls and strikes, call a spade a spade.
Trump endorsed Lindsey Graham for re-election to the Senate. Mark Lynch sounds like a winner to me. Can these odds be bet on like any other race? Trump just did America a favor in bringing this race to our attention.