Across the Pacific, the backlash against tech infrastructure is taking a different but equally striking form. The city of Monterey Park, near Los Angeles, has voted to ban data centers — a first-of-its-kind decision in the United States, according to Der Spiegel. The vote reflects growing grassroots resistance to the expansion of large-scale computing facilities, which residents associate with noise, water consumption, and strain on local power grids. As AI-driven demand for data center capacity surges worldwide, Monterey Park’s ban could become a template — or a cautionary tale — for communities elsewhere.
Walter Murrow
June 4, 2026
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