Free Republic

CHICAGO — This week, workers began tearing down the vacant Sears world headquarters in Hoffman Estates before the site is turned into a data center, a trend that has grown popular in the suburbs and now, a Chicago alderman wants to bring more of them into the city. That alderman is the 36th Ward’s Gilbert Villegas, who is advocating for a plan at City Council to convert vacant Chicago land into data centers. At a cost of millions annually, city government stores its data at centers locate outside of Chicago. Villegas, chairman of the Council Technology Committee, has written an...