STLPR0%
Alderwoman Schweitzer on why data center near the Armory stoked ire among constituents 36%
By Jason Rosenbaum0%
5/4/2026, 5:00:00 AM
Topics: Radio Episode
BS Summary: This article contains 23 faulty reasoning types, including Framing Effect, Pessimism Bias, and Optimism Bias, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 23.1% saturation with 124 hits. Analysis detected 916 faulty-reasoning hits from 536 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 43.1% and a BS Rank of 36% (14,054 of 21,886 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 64.20% of the article peer group.
When the St.
Louis Board of Public Service approved a conditional use permit for a data center in Midtown, it propelled the city into a debate that has stoked enormous passion around the country and throughout the St.
Louis region.
St.
Louis Alderwoman Anne Schweitzer said she’s seen these big reactions firsthand.
She said on “The Politically Speaking Hour on St.
Louis on the Air” that some of the fiercest opponents of data centers live in her south St.
Louis-based 1st Ward.
She said she also represents people trying to make the data center a reality.
“I think the No. 1 concern people have around data centers is the environmental impact of data centers — as well as things like, will these affect their utility bills?
Will they affect how much they're paying for energy, and what energy needs exist within the grid?”
Schweitzer said.
“And then there's things like the tax revenue, the jobs created, the ability for a data center to create vibrancy, or make vibrancy go away in areas if they're done poorly.
So there's just so many different things to think about.”
Schweitzer penned a lengthy post on Facebook detailing concerns about the data center near the Armory.
Among them was the fact that the Board of Public Service approved the conditional use permit before the city’s Planning Commission could complete regulations for data centers.
And while Schweitzer emphasized that the conditions for the data center are much better than what was originally proposed, she added there were at least five possible guidelines that were not included that would have made the entire deal stronger.
One of them wouldn’t have allowed testing diesel generators during periods of bad air quality.
Another would have increased data center’s renewable energy targets.
“The conditional use permit that passed to the Board of Public Service, the improvement is incredible,” Schweitzer said.
“But I think when the draft regulations that the Planning Commission is discussing are posted soon you'll see that there's more that could have been put on this project.”
Data centers have become huge local government issues throughout the St.
Louis region, particularly in Franklin County, Festus and St.
Charles.
Schweitzer said there are two things that are likely driving significant opposition to the facilities: the fact that they consume so much power and water and how data centers are associated with artificial intelligence technology that may affect people’s livelihoods.
She also said she’s concerned that technology could advance to allow large amounts of data to be housed in smaller containers, which could render data centers housed in large warehouses obsolete.
“I think that is where you talk about the vibrancy of a community,” Schweitzer said.
“If you think about vacant large buildings in the city of St Louis, it's one of the things that is the most challenging for neighborhoods.”
“St.
Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St.
Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region.
The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer.
Layla Halilbasic is our production assistant.
The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
Speakers
2speakers79%attributed speech110writer words
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100%flagged-word coverageLouis Board of Public Service
35 attributed words8.2% of attributed speech43% writer coverage
Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.
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Analysis
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