Hum

Last night it popped back into my mind that a data center is being planned for not far off, in Ypsilanti Township, which mostly surrounds Ypsilanti but is a separate thing. The location is six miles from this house. It is a project between the University of Michigan and Los Alamos National Laboratory. A key purpose of this facility will be nuclear weapons research. 

The University of Michigan seems to have proceeded in bad faith and with evident contempt for Ypsilanti Township, many of whose residents are low income. (They don’t seem to have considered locating this data center in the upscale Ann Arbor Township community of Barton Hills.) As a public university, they do not need to follow local zoning regulations and they also won’t be paying property taxes. 

They began by buying 20 acres of land, which made it sound like the project would not be large, but then picked out another 124 acres adjacent to the 20 acres. The project is so large, it will need its own DTE (gas and electric) substation. The University of Michigan, per accounts online, seems to have been extremely unforthcoming with information and arrogantly unresponsive to the concerns of community members, as has Governor Gretchen Whitmer. When Ypsilanti Township calls to talk about the data center, she doesn’t answer the phone. She is claiming that Michigan will be a model for how to build these things in a responsible way that is good for the community.

The University of Michigan, also an entity I thought well of until about 24 hours ago, keeps saying it’s not a data center! It’s a “high-performance computational research center.” (I was looking forward to voting for Gretchen Whitmer for president, but now I am not so sure.)

Apparently Michigan is an increasingly popular place to plan data center projects because it’s cold here half the year, which reduces cooling costs. Twenty-six AI data centers have been proposed across Michigan; as of late last year, 16 potential sites had been identified, but it is not assured that all will pan out. As of yet, there is no giant AI data center operating in Michigan, but there is this one planned for Ypsilanti Township and a massive one nearing completion close by in Saline, just south of Ann Arbor. This is all kind of new, following tax breaks for data centers signed into law late in 2024.

The Ypsilanti Township Board of Trustees originally approved the proposal unanimously, but a week or so ago, after much activism by citizens, voted against it, and the Ypsilanti Township government website clearly says they oppose the data center. Besides the concerns about demands on the electrical grid and noise and water pollution, Ypsilanti Township is concerned that putting a facility like that nearby puts a bullseye on their back, fearing it would be a “high-value target,” potentially even for foreign adversaries.

The site is on the Huron River, near a public park and near an affordable housing development. Ypsilanti Township proposed a different site, one that has unused land available and includes an industrial zone. While the university and LANL have bought the land at the original site, they say they have not made a final decision about the data center’s location.

My major concerns about this are two: I was thinking that University of Michigan Health would be a great place for me to be a hospital chaplain, should I eventually be able to get such a job, but I would not work for them now, on principle. I’m down to zero attractive potential employers in this area. 

The larger concern is about noise, not the horrendous racket people nearby might have to endure, but the low-frequency hum these places are notorious for generating, which the internet claims can be heard up to 30 miles away. My ears are particularly well tuned to that frequency. Many years ago, for months or longer, every single night, all night, I heard a low-frequency hum, as if a large truck were idling a block away. It was maddening. Not loud, but completely impossible to tune out.

There are many online accounts of people being tormented by this kind of hum from a nearby data center. I would be mighty unhappy if I gave up an excellent job and transported Marvin and Duckworth across the country only to find that I can’t live here because of such a hum.

This morning, the air conditioning guys arrived, and so did the drywall guy. In the afternoon, a second painter came to provide a quote, and I met with a first estate sale person. The first thing the painter said was something like, “What’s the plan here?” 

“Why do you ask?”

He said, “I can see there’s a lot going on. Is this an insurance claim?” (He had not failed to observe the two service vehicles parked out front in addition to his own.) I was getting ready to not like him, but he soon won me over through sheer force of personality; he is a dynamic presence and a quick thinker. He also proved to have an eagle eye, pointing out a lot of things I’d never noticed.

His quote was a bit lower than the first painter’s, and since he has a crew, he said he could get this done in four or five days, whereas the first painter, who works alone, said it could take more than three weeks. I decided to go with the painter who came over today, and notified both.

I also, shameful to say, initially thought I might not like the estate sale lady, but I ended up liking her a lot. Earlier, I spoke with another estate sale person on the phone who, after she received photos, said, “This is a cleanout.” That is, there’s nothing to sell, but if you give me enough money, I’ll put all of your possessions in a Dumpster. My sister and I like the idea of our parents’ objects going out into the world, of someone coming along and saying, “Look at this hand-knitted hat!” or “Look at this pad of paper! There are still half the sheets left!”

When I spoke on the phone to the person who came today, she said she will sell what she can, then donate as much as she can, and give the rest away for free; very little will be truly junk. We liked the sound of that right away, and she and I proved to hit it off very well, so after she left, I canceled the meeting I had scheduled with another estate sale place on Friday. My realtor had recommended them, but I encountered an online review where someone said this place bailed on her just days before her sale, which was necessitated by the death of her husband, and left her in tremendous distress. The estate sale person I picked out today came to this reviewer’s rescue.

When I called to cancel, I said we had decided to go in a different direction (perfectly true), and the person said, “What’s that?” I was slightly shocked, and probably a bit incoherent in my answer, which should have been, “I’ll forgive you for asking if you forgive me for not answering.” She sounded distinctly miffed when we hung up. Odd. I mean, it could have been that I was getting divorced and had to sell the house pursuant to that, but then there had been a last-minute happy reunion and thus no need to sell the house.

We have an estate sale person and a painter.