My neighbors are kept awake 24 hours a day by cooling fans – and there may be more to come, that’s a scandal

Members of a community banded together to stop a company’s giant cooling fans from disrupting their neighborhood.

Residents are concerned about a data center that could bring noise and chaos to their neighborhood.

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Digital Realty Trust is proposing to build a new data center in Chicago’s Prairie Avenue District.

The company previously built a data center a few miles from the neighborhood, where residents complained about noisy computers and constantly ringing alarms.

Many people in the neighborhood have come together to create a petition asking Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd) does not want to approve the new data center.

“That’s a scandal!” said Tina Feldstein, president of the Prairie District Neighborhood Alliance.

Residents in the area say they are disturbed by loud computers and alarms emanating from the nearby Digital Reality data center.

“It usually starts at night, sometimes during the day,” said resident Brandon Cepeda.

Those who live next to the current data center on Cermak Road complain that the fans run 24 hours a day to prevent the computer from overheating.

“The neighbors literally couldn’t sleep,” Feldstein said.

Since the news of the new data center, residents have done everything to prevent the plan from being implemented.

“We brought in professionals to prove that the noise level is absolutely unbearable,” Feldstein said.

The Prairie District Neighborhood Alliance has also pointed to other ways the new data center could harm the community.

The group noted that the center could cause environmental damage as it “regularly produces air pollution from sprayed black soot.”

The petition has currently garnered over 500 signatures from community residents.

“It would be detrimental to the community and people nearby,” said Angela Ingram, who organized the petition.

“We want infrastructure that reflects our values ​​and strengthens our community rather than disrupts it.”

Several complaints were made to Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd), about the data center.

“We have mobilized residents to resist and support the proposed data center. The opposition outweighs the support,” a spokesman for Alderman Dowell told the station.

The US Sun reached out to Digital Reality and Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd) for comment.