Blog
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Data Centers Don’t Have an Environmental Record. They Have Thirteen of Them.
Thirteen data center environmental complaints, rated against permits and city records. What reaches Northern Illinois is the regulatory gaps, not the harm. Read more →
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The Pipeline, and Why This Work Comes Last
Fourteen pieces are queued behind eleven published. A verification pipeline that checks every draft against sources is the slow part, on purpose. Read more →
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Honda Navigation Clock Stuck at 0:00? Here Is What Actually Happened
Honda or Acura navigation clock stuck at 0:00? It looks like a GPS chip’s built-in expiry date, not your antenna. Check your own screen in a minute. Read more →
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Hello World!
I’m Mike Hammett. Twenty years running ISP and data center infrastructure in Northern Illinois, co-founding an internet exchange, and watching public narratives about technical systems drift further from operational reality. Most of what gets written about infrastructure, policy, and public… Read more →
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An Open Letter to Data Center Developers: Transparency Prevents Delays
The information vacuum around new data center projects gets filled by whoever shows up first. Usually that’s not the developer. Here’s what the industry keeps getting wrong, and why it’s easier to fix than they think. Read more →
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Why Electric Bills Really Rose, and What It Means for Data Centers
Electric bills went up. Data centers got blamed. The cause is PJM capacity markets and Illinois deregulation decisions made years before the first server arrived on I-88. Read more →
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How Meta’s Data Center Affected DeKalb County Property Taxes (2020–2024)
Assessments are up. Tax rates are down. Most residents don’t know why. The numbers are public. Here’s what they show. Read more →
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What Data Centers Actually Mean for Northern Illinois Communities
Data center projects along I-88 have added $200 million in taxable value and cut local tax rates roughly 20%. They’ve also generated an unusual amount of bad information. Here’s what the public records show. Read more →
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Balancing Growth: How Yorkville’s Data Centers Strengthen Our Community
Yorkville’s Project Cardinal and Project Steel show how smart planning turns data center growth into school funding, rate relief on water bills, and infrastructure paid for by developers – not taxpayers. Read more →
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What DeKalb’s Experience Shows About Data Centers and Community Growth
DeKalb’s Meta Data Center added over $100 million to the local tax base, created more than 1,200 construction jobs, and helped lower property tax rates. Here’s what the real numbers show. Read more →