PAUL GORDON
A couple years ago I was involved in a short film called “NIMBY.”
The film was about a small Illinois town being asked to allow a large factory to locate there. Problem is, the factory — which removed harmful toxins from the air — came with many issues. Among them, the size, the noise, the unsightly looks and smell.
The company trying to build it had already been turned down by a hundred or so towns. Hence, the title “NIMBY,” which is universal code for “Not In My Backyard.”
Does any of this sound familiar? I immediately thought of NIMBY when reading about all the towns, including Pekin, that really don’t want data centers located there. And given the fact the company in our film came before a City Council in a town with a female mayor, I thought maybe “NIMBY” author Hale Garrison was clairvoyant.
Actually, Garrison said, he wrote it as a stage play several years ago, before the data center issue came up. But it was inspired by other, similar issues here and other places. “There does seem to be a lot of parallels, though,” he said.
A data center is a building or set of buildings — an installation — where thousands of computers and servers are kept to process, store and share digital information.
They use a tremendous amount of energy to operate and take up a boatload of space. That’s why data center developers are looking for lots of green space in rural areas, usually near small towns. Like the space in rural Pekin.
In “NIMBY,” the council members have other, not-so-pleasant suggestions for the anti-toxin factory. The mayor even asks, “have you thought about building it on the moon?”
You know, now that we’re going back to the moon … Nah, Garrison isn’t that clairvoyant.
Pekin data center deal effectively dead now
I am not judging here. I certainly understand how some things just aren’t good for a community even if it’s meant to be for the greater good. For example, I wouldn’t want a line of windmills around my neighborhood.
I’m not going to give away the ending to “NIMBY,” which is actually a comedy. Garrison, a former Peorian and retired professor of mass media and film, has submitted the short film to some festivals, picking up a couple awards along the way.
Garrison said he plans to put “NIMBY” on YouTube soon. I’ll let you know.
In the meantime, stay alert on the data center front. It’s inevitable those places are going to be built and I suppose there is a valid argument to make for them. But it’s important, too, that the public get some say in the matter.
That doesn’t seem to happen enough these days.