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I'm going to go out on a limb here: Nobody is building data centers near wealthy neighborhoods.
Which is why the comparison is based on rate ...
Wouldn't the total number affect accuracy of the rate? I think one chart in the article showed something like 700 proposals for low income areas and 100-200 proposals for high income areas. As N approaches zero, the rate of resistance or cancellation is a lot more sensitive to smaller numbers of events.
Looks like the total n c1,500 was for all known projects in the dataset. The quartiles were determined from within areas with known projects.
So the Q4 range ( $133-250k median household), represents the 25% projects in the richest areas of areas that had projects in them. Hence n is 365/366 "projects" in each each group.
If there are tracts with median hh incomes way above that, but no projects, then "resistance" rate is unknown or even undefined.
Thank you for the explanation.
And if the wealthy need to "resist" a data center, they have the power to do so quietly, successfully, and with little effort. Poor neighborhoods can make all the noise they want, to little or no effect.
Not to be a wet blanket, but might that be because data centers are being built in working class neighborhoods at a higher rate than wealthy ones?
Maybe try reading the article before useless speculation on a topic that is clearly outlined in the data provided?
Ok, I've read the article and come back. I have the same question. The only statement that tangents my point is this one:
“The lowest-income, least-educated neighborhoods resist most, even among the low-income, low-degree areas facing proposals,” he adds.
But the variable the article cares most about is what happens to data centers that encounter community resistance, vs ones that don't. Yes they categorize those 2 groups by income level, but there doesn't seem to be a chart saying "data centers are 5 times more likely to be proposed in low income areas compared to high ones."
Care to point me in the right direction?
There are nonprofits that help organize to prevent the exploitation/displacement of low income populations while higher income areas are left to self organize. It would also have been useful to track political affiliation of these neighborhoods since it could be a political divide instead. I think people in the the $133k-$250k would be more conservative and thus more pro data center.
As an aside: I wish people would quit using the term 'working class' to refer to income level, its such a fuzzy term. Using 'low income' and 'high income' makes more sense in this case as it better reflects what Geoff Holtzman is talking about and working class could be refering to employment type.
I find this hard to believe. wealthy neighborhoods near me don't even want warehouses or dense housing.