Editor’s note: Welcome to Rocklandia, our (relatively) new column designed to inform you, dear reader, about stuff (news, stories, people, politics, public safety, music, movements, wild animal versus human interactions, etc.) going on in Rockland County, from a Nyack-centric perspective. Here at Rocklandia, we love conversation and feedback. Please email us with thoughts, stories, ideas, food recs or anything else at alex@nyacknewsandviews.com.
Last week, we started with a rambling introduction to this new column that included a hilarious skit (perhaps the best skit ever) from the show Portlandia (definitely the best show about Portland ever).
This week, we’ll start with another (hilarious? sad? telling?) video, this one from an Industrial Development Agency public hearing from February 8, 2024 at the Orangetown town hall.
Please do not click play on this video. It’s mostly being used as a rhetorical device to enhance our credibility and set up a joke.
Hopefully, you didn’t click on the video, unless you are a masochist who enjoys the comforting silence of an impressively sterile municipal meeting room (note what appears to be a yellow, wet floor sign from a recent washing). We’ll explain how these sounds of silence will affect you, dear reader, in just a minute.
But first:
The Lineup:
- Rockland’s Data Center Tax Break Controversy
- Shipping to Nowhere and Other News
- Food for Thought: Top Breakfast Options
- Musical Outro
Rockland’s Data Center Tax Break Controversy
Ok, back to our intimate public hearing from 2024. This particular hearing was held to offer the public an opportunity to weigh in on a request by mega bank JP Morgan Chase for nearly $77 million in tax breaks as it expands on its current facility, which already used up $35 million in previous tax breaks. That’s $112 million of tax revenue, about half of which could have gone (or could go to) pay for services in Rockland County (the other half goes to the state for other statewide government services and programming).
Allow me to summarize the proceedings — which were, I’m sure, advertised wide and far before they commenced in the middle of a weekday morning — by offering a series of grainy screenshots.
Here’s Heidi Vandiver, the IDA’s deputy executive director, introducing the public hearing:
Here we are two and a half minutes into the hearing:
Let’s skip ahead to a full five-plus minutes in:
Alright, let’s fast forward up until the 13:03 mark and check in on the action:
Then things really start to heat up toward the end of the hearing:
I think you get the picture. A month after this not attended hearing, Rockland County granted Chase $77 million in sales tax breaks.
The upshot is that Rockland County’s gaining a well-deserved reputation for being overly friendly (imagine Will Ferrell’s Elf) to data center construction and local citizens are starting to fight back.
On Tuesday, August 25, data center opponents who say these energy hoarding behemoths are harmful to communities — environmentally (through noise, water and air pollution) and financially (through rising energy costs) — rallied in Orangetown with New York State Senator Kristen Gonzalez, a Democrat who sponsored the Responsible Data Center Development Bill, and other local activist organizations, including Bistate Data Center Crisis Coalition, Food and Water Watch, Democratic Socialists of America, and Indivisible Rockland.
Gonzalez’s bill, which would provide community protections and application transparency, is currently waiting to be signed by Governor Kathy Hochul, who issued a data center moratorium in July, but appears to be hesitant about signing the new legislation.
But even more immediately, Orangetown residents are hoping to curtail proposed expansion of the Data Bank data center, which currently occupies a huge lot on the edge of the Tappan Lake Reservoir and is just a few football fields away from Veterans Memorial Park, where I’ve coached my son’s soccer team dozens of times.
The Orangetown Town Board responded to the recent backlash by proposing its own local moratorium on new data centers.
But the legislation does not include the new Data Bank expansion — much to the chagrin and consternation of residents and advocates, who say they have bombarded the board with hundreds of letters and public comments.
Lohud’s Chris McKenna, who has done a masterful job documenting the data center fight, talked to Pearl River resident Kris Sweeney during a public hearing about the Data Bank expansion in March.
“We are overly saturated with data centers,” Sweeney said. “There is no talk of the cost to us, the local utility ratepayers.”
About a month after Sweeney aired her grievances, nonprofit newshounds New York Focus published its story about the $77 million windfall for Chase’s data center, which is less than a mile from the Data Bank facility in Orangetown. The headline: “This Data Center is Getting $77 Million to Create One Job.”
The IDA’s executive director, Steven Porvath, pushed back on the headline and characterization. According to a cost-benefit analysis developed for the IDA, the county stands to gain more than $130 million (net) over the long-term course and maintenance of the project. This revenue is mostly going to plumbers, electricians, and contractors doing construction and maintenance work at the site over several years. But, even if those numbers are legitimate, it’s unclear how many of those workers actually live or spend their money in Rockland County.
“It’s a misconception to say there’s one person sitting in that data center,” Porvath told NY Focus.
Yeah, but is there actually more than one person sitting in that data center?
As the race to control and monetize the digital world, specifically Artificial Intelligence, ramps up worldwide, the money going into data centers is reaching into the trillions of dollars, a nearly unfathomable amount of money.
It’s become a huge point of contention not only in blue states like New York, but red states like Texas and purple states like Michigan.
And it’s also become a talking point on the campaign trail, where we have seen a sharp divide between the approach of Republicans and Democrats. You can see them in this exchange last week in Dutchess County during a candidate forum featuring NY-17 congressional candidates (reminder: NY-17 includes all of Rockland, plus parts of Westchester and Dutchess counties).
Incumbent Mike Lawler, a Pearl River (part of Orangetown) resident, first acknowledges that data centers should be responsible community partners but focuses mostly on the urgency of creating data centers in order to win the AI race against China as the primary driver for supporting that type of development.
On the other hand, Cait Conley, the Democratic challenger, takes the opposite position: first acknowledging the need for American to be technologically competitive, but not at the expense of local residents, whose needs and desires should come first.
“We’re just letting corporations pass on costs to our community and extort benefit,” Conley said. “That’s not the right answer.”
In our local state senate race (38th District), Republican incumbent Bill Weber voted against Gonzalez’s data center protection bill, while Democratic challenger Joe Rand has voiced his support for the bill, saying elected officials need to make sure “Rockland residents aren’t hit with even more utility bill increases to subsidize these data centers’ electricity usage.”
While she isn’t rushing to sign Gonzalez’s bill, Governor Hochul acknowledged things are moving fast in our new data center-driven world, saying she wanted to “slow it down because right now I have over thirty projects before us in the state of New York, and if I powered every one of them, you would not be able to turn on the lights tomorrow.”
Stay tuned.
Shipping From Rockland to Nowhere and More Leftovers
This is where we do some quick hits on stories people may have missed and drop in on some local multimedia.
A 48-year-old Bronx man was charged with defrauding people who were trying to ship items from an allegedly fake company known as Rockland Shipping, which purported to send goods to anywhere in the world from the renowned international shipping hub of Haverstraw, New York.
Mark your calendars! We are going to get at least two televised debates in the broiling NY-17 congressional race between Mike Lawler and Cait Conley, the first on News 12 on September 28 and the second on PIX11 on October 14. Some good zingers from both candidates in this reporting by lohud.
A roundup of 9/11 memorials coming up on the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks, according to lohud. Conspicuously not included: the Nyack event at Memorial Park, 6 pm start time.
In Nyack real estate news, the embattled building that houses the new restaurant Tamarind (and used to be The Brickhouse), was sold as part of bankruptcy deal for $5 million, according to Rockland Business Journal. The deal also includes the now-vacant former tile place across from Walgreens on Highland and the empty space across from Dolce Vita. We’ll keep an eye on this one. I’m smelling something more pungent than garam marsala here.
Food for Thought: Top 5 Breakfast Options in Nyack
A few foodie thoughts on our way out the door. In response to the news that Nyack’s Breakfast and Burger Club is opening a new location in New City, I thought I would share my personal Top 5 places to grab breakfast. (Note: I can’t speak to the breakfast at Breakfast and Burger Club, but it looks pretty awesome.)
- 1) Strawberry Place (classic, quick, cheap-ish; the food is fine, the vibes are as local as it gets)
- 2) Art Cafe (try the shakshuka; it hits every time)
- 3) Boxer Donut (my on-the-go go-to: either the breakfast cookie or, if I’m not concerned about calories or cholesterol, the bacon, egg and cheese on a biscuit)
- 4) Didier (the ham and cheese croissant is downright decadent)
- 5) Runcible Spoon (they’ve got everything on deck)
Please respond with your own Top 5: alex@nyacknewsandviews.com.
Exit Music
Because every good show needs some good exit music to send you on your way! Please be in touch, this DJ takes recommendations: alex@nyacknewsandviews.com. See you next time! (Probably, hopefully in two weeks)
