San Jose Mayor Mahan defends data center expansion as community expresses concerns

Welcome back to Morning Sun 2. It's 5:44. People in San Jose are asking for more say in the future of AI data center development. And as KTVU's Cheri Gaines tells us, people pack into a meeting at City Hall to share their concerns about how fast these data centers have been established. The people of San Jose have questions about data centers. Is this going to bring my bill up? Is this is going to pollute? Is this is going to, you know, warm up the city more and things like that Oh, we don't know. More than 100 residents filled San Jose City Hall Thursday night, all looking for answers on how the city plans to manage the growing footprint of local data centers. Being a faith leader is about caring for all of creation. So that's the people, that's the planet, and I think data centers harm both. From faith leaders to teenagers, there was no shortage of voices sharing concerns about the influx of data centers. The community hasn't been given proof yet that there's enough infrastructure and standards so that the data centers can really be a net benefit. While most community members are pushing back against bringing more data centers into San Jose, city leadership says they are an essential part of San Jose's future. The entire backbone of the internet, our phones, all of the apps we use, our increasingly digitized economy and healthcare and education and transportation rely on this digital infrastructure, but that doesn't mean that we should give anybody a pass. Community members we spoke to say the city's outreach about data centers has not been effective. First of all, we need to know what's going on in our own language because we are 42% immigrants here and it should not only be Spanish, it should be in all the languages. Mayor Matt Mahan says he wants to see the city of San Jose lead the conversation around regulatory labor and environmental standards. The standard staff is presenting today, which are still in draft form, literally are category defining in each of the areas people are concerned about. But people we heard from say in order to do that, things must slow down. Before we get to that stage where we just have too many data centers, we really need to make sure in San Jose we have the infrastructure and standards necessary. After that meeting ended on Thursday, many participants stepped outside and participated in a demonstration against data centers. What they tell me is they want to see a moratorium on them. But what city leadership said is that they won't be going away anytime soon. In San Jose, Tori Gaines, KTVU, Fox 2 News.