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> Certainly, part of it is also cultural and legal frameworks that in the US make it very hard for this model to work How so? In the United States Congress gra
by kccqzy 6mo ago
> Certainly, part of it is also cultural and legal frameworks that in the US make it very hard for this model to work
How so? In the United States Congress granted land to railroad companies, and the companies can sell the land to finance building tracks. Many cities started as railroad stops and grew because of the railroad.
- d_sem 6mo agoI suspect the commenter above is reflecting on 2026 USA and not 1850 USA. The past tense nature of your comment if part of the concern highlights a common recognition that there is limited evidence the country is currently capable of building.
- CharlieDigital 6mo agoA lot of NIMBY/racism/classism and modern reality of legal delays means that it can be costly. Zoning laws is another. It's a lot of fun visiting Japan and Taiwan because you can wander around and there's a huge variation of utilization in a given block. US approach to zoning means that I rarely see similar utilization in the US. Separate from this is politics. I'm in the NYC metro area and we've been trying to expand access into NYC for decades. You would think that this would be a no-brainer because it enables so much economic activity in both directions (NY/NJ). Yet, Chris Christie canceled the ARC project (which itself was years in the making) for optics at the time of the Tea Party.
- kavok 6mo agoNIMBY seems to have a hard time stopping data centers. Why do they have more success stopping renewables and rail?
- Avicebron 6mo agoIf we put the same amount of economic pressure on rail that data centers have...the US would have probably have almost as nice infrastructure as China and be significantly better off.
- CharlieDigital 6mo agoNIMBY is stopping data centers. Maine set to become first state with data center ban: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/09/maine-data-center-ban.html https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/09/maine-data-center-ban.html Also, it's a different kind of more insidious and visceral NIMBY rooted in racism and classism.
- WillPostForFood 6mo agoYes, see the famous essay, Nimby Good When My Neighborhood by I Hyppocrit.
- ghaff 6mo agoNot sure it's a bad thing. So, they would employ maybe 30 people after they're built. Consume a lot of power and water. I'd have to see the details of a specific proposal but I'd probably vote against personally.
- kavok 6mo agoSure, it’s stopping some, but not most/all even with strong public opposition. See: https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/small-missouri-town-ousts-half-its-city-council-after-usd6-billion-ai-data-center-approval-petition-calls-for-mayors-removal-as-frustration-and-violence-over-ai-data-centers-mounts https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/small-missouri-to...
- kulahan 6mo agoIt's facetious to pretend NIMBYs are as such because they're racist and classist, rather than because they just want to protect the single most valuable and future-determining investment they'll make in their entire lives.
- otterley 6mo agoThose factors are tied together and aren’t easily separable. The racism and classism comes in because they believe that people of a different race or class will diminish the value of their investment.
- kjkjadksj 6mo agoThe public rail industry has no bribing mechanism unlike the data center industry and the fossil fuel industry. Did I write bribe? Sorry, “campaign contribution.” But sometimes also literally bribes like Tony Soprano cash in the bag.
- kevin_thibedeau 6mo agoThere's an existing disused commuter rail line in NJ near the Hudson that was shut down in the 60s. It still has many of its stations and density to support rail service today but can't be reopened because of the NIMBYs. If they can't make that work, the rest of the country is mostly hopeless.