The possibility of our hosting (or being occupied by) a data center has now come up, with one possible site being the soon-to-be-former location of the Coca Cola plant in Northampton’s industrial park between Damon Road and Bridge Road.
More than 50 years ago, the Northampton Redevelopment Authority was established by the state Legislature to promote industrial development in our city. Northampton had long been home to industries like the Pro Brush Corporation, the Coca Cola Bottling Company, Kollmorgen, and others.
The Northampton Redevelopment Authority focused its efforts on the creation and population of the industrial park we have today. The results have been “suboptimal.” Instead of manufacturing, the industrial park is occupied by warehouses, offices, a bus garage, and a school. The Redevelopment Authority itself is no longer in business.
Northampton’s Industrial Park is well located. It is convenient to Routes 5, 10, 9, and 91, and the railroad passes right through it. Plenty of land is available. A data center seems to be just the thing for which the Northampton Industrial Park was intended.
Industrial data centers are commonly believed to be resource-hungry phenomena, requiring and appropriating significant shares of water and electricity. There has been a lot of discussion about this. Some communities have passed moratoria on the siting of these.
What bothers me is that no one seems to be talking about the data being stored and processed in these facilities. What is it? Baseball statistics? Marketing information? People’s exam grades? Where does the data come from? How is it gathered? Who is using it, how, and for what purposes? Should there not be discussions about the desirability as well as the practicality of these things?
Peter Jones
Florence