{"id":434802,"date":"2026-08-16T22:06:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T22:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/434802\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T22:06:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T22:06:29","slug":"some-oaklanders-opposed-to-proposed-data-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/434802\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Oaklanders Opposed to Proposed Data Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

Residents and workers cite environmental concerns associated with the centers and distrust with developers as reasons for opposition. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A view of downtown and Lake Merritt are seen from this drone view in Oakland, California, on Nov. 21, 2019. Residents and workers cite environmental concerns associated with data centers and distrust with developers as reasons for the proposed data center in the downtown area.\u00a0(Jane Tyska\/Digital First Media\/The East Bay Times via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Several Oaklanders say that Behring Companies can position its proposed data center<\/a> as an outlier to the larger-scale facilities that\u2019ve come under fire for high energy and water usage, but their feelings won\u2019t change for the most part.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s largely because of distrust in the developer\u2019s intentions and environmental impacts that centers have had on communities in other states.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cKeep data centers out of Oakland,\u201d said Bryan Ortega, 30, who has been an Oakland resident for years. \u201cI don\u2019t like data centers, I don\u2019t agree with them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"The location of a proposed data center at 415 20th St. in Oakland on Aug. 14, 2026. Residents and workers cite the environmental concerns associated with the centers and distrust with developers as reasons for their opposition to the project.<\/p>\n

Behring is in the early stages of what it calls an innovation hub on 20th Street that includes about 20,000 square footage dedicated to a data center. The project is a single piece in a four building project that would provide housing, office space and parking. Its addition could help bring jobs to the struggling downtown area<\/a>, according to the developer and Oakland City Councilmember Carroll Fife.<\/p>\n

Ortega doesn\u2019t buy it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe intention is not good,\u201d Ortega said. \u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019re opening data centers for any good reasons; it\u2019s all capital gain.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ortega linked his opposition to other data centers popping up in the Bay Area that have drawn large pushback.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Colin Behring, CEO and founder of Behring Companies, addresses the media in front of 415 20th St. in Oakland on Friday, Aug. 14, 2026, as Councilmember Carroll Fife, to the right, listens in. <\/p>\n

If part of the project in Oakland doesn\u2019t happen, Behring Companies CEO Colin Behring says \u201cthe whole picture falls apart.\u201d Possibilities of high water and energy usage at the site, he says, are not a concern because newer technology for water cooling wouldn\u2019t waste water and California produces plenty of energy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Areli Hernandez, an Oakland resident for about a decade, was alarmed to learn about the project.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, no,\u201d Hernandez said about Behring\u2019s reasoning behind the proposal not using large amounts of water or energy. \u201cThere should be something citizens of Oakland can sign to contest the data center.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fife said Friday that the circulating petition and other similar ones often go out because some people are not clear on what is being proposed. That\u2019s why she said more information is needed \u2014 for everyone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Varshneya said PSL will continue to oppose the project while raising awareness about it in the community. On Friday at 7 p.m., the group will host an organizing meeting about the data center at the Oakland Liberation Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Residents and workers cite environmental concerns associated with the centers and distrust with developers as reasons for opposition.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-434802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}