A tiny Ohio town just found a way to make data centers pay
Vox · Sara Herschander ·
As anti-data center measures sweep elections across America, Perry, Ohio, has found a new way to demand more from the companies powering the AI boom.
In a state of post-election bliss, John Nicely drove his daily school bus route on Wednesday morning through the tiny town of Perry, Ohio, a few miles south of Lake Erie.
“So, when are you taking down the signs, Mr. Nicely?” his students asked him as they filed inside, “because you kicked butt, buddy.”
They were joking, of course, the way kids sometimes do with an adult they really like — and Nicely is, if my calls with him are any indication, a man who makes good on the promise of his name. But they were also right: He had kicked butt.