The city is asking community members how it should spend the tax money Mayor Paul Young wants set aside for neighborhoods within a five-mile radius of xAI’s two local facilities. An ordinance to reserve a quarter of tax proceeds from both sites for those neighborhoods is expected to have its first reading at Tuesday’s council meeting.
“It allows for us to make more intense investments into the things that will support that community, with a heavy emphasis on housing, on community facilities and other investments that the community deems significant,” Young told MLK50: Justice Through Journalism in an interview.
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Area residents can fill out a survey about their funding preferences on the city’s website. The city also plans to provide printed copies of the survey to churches and other area organizations, which can be requested by emailing mayor@memphistn.gov.
While the survey is open to anyone, a ZIP code is required, and Young said the city will prioritize feedback from those living in 38109, which encompasses xAI’s two sites.
Get involved
Live in 38109? Fill out the city’s survey online: https://memphistn.gov/38109-community-benefits-survey/
Do you want your organization to offer printed surveys? Request copies by sending an email: mayor@memphistn.gov
The survey asks participants to rank issues such as community center improvements, blight remediation efforts, home repair, road repairs and public safety. Respondents can also share their ideas about how the city should spend the money. Another opportunity for feedback will be offered next year, Young said.
The city is estimating it will receive around $13 million in taxes this year from the first xAI facility, located in Boxtown, he said. That would mean the ordinance, if approved by the City Council, will allocate about $3 million to the neighborhoods within that five-mile radius, including Boxtown and Westwood. Tax revenues for the second site, located on Tulane Road, can’t be estimated until construction wraps up.
There is a six-week process for the ordinance to be approved, during which it will be voted on by the Memphis City Council three times. The survey will remain open to feedback during that time, and Memphis residents can also offer public comments at City Council meetings, Young said.
While the ordinance is currently intended to only apply to the two xAI sites, the council could amend it to apply to other artificial intelligence data centers, Young said.
The Rev. Melvin Watkins, senior pastor of Mt. Vernon Baptist Church in Westwood, said his church will offer printed copies of the survey to residents.
“I think that for any company that’s coming into a community like ours, Boxtown, Westwood, 38109, that has borne the weight of industry for decades, I think this is a moment for us to get it right and invest back into our community,” Watkins said. “We are really thankful for how the mayor’s trying to do this, and at the same time, we would appreciate more than 25%.”
Some community members say the proposal doesn’t alleviate their concerns about xAI.
Easter Knox, a Boxtown resident who lives about two miles from the first xAI site, said she’ll have to think and pray about whether to even take the survey, since it feels “sort of like giving in.”
Knox, along with other area residents and activists, has been vocal in her opposition to the Colossus supercomputer, which powers and trains Grok, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot.
“It’s just a hard decision for me. I’ve been out here nearly 50 years, and things hadn’t changed yet,” Knox said. “You can’t make nothing good out of a bad thing. (There’s) still gonna be sickness and stuff, and it’s gonna get worse.”
The Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of the NAACP and Young, Gifted & Green, appealed the Shelby County Health Department’s decision to issue an air permit to xAI for its Boxtown data center last week.
Asked about ongoing opposition to the xAI project due to concerns about the health impacts of its methane gas turbines and Grok itself — which this month made antisemitic and pro-Hitler posts on X — Young said his goal is to “demonstrate to the community that we can find ways to leverage this project for more investment in communities that need it.”
“I think the more we can take dollars and do those things that people have been calling for us to do, the more we can ease some of those concerns,” Young said.
Katherine Burgess is the government accountability reporter for MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. Contact her at katherine.burgess@mlk50.com
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