Indian Wells’ Mayor Thinks He Knows What’s Best for Coachella (Spoiler: He Doesn’t)–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: June 8, 2026

Indy Digest: June 8, 2026

Last week, The Desert Sun ran one of the more incredible opinion pieces I’ve read in a while. And when I say incredible, I don’t mean that in a good way.

The author of the piece is Toper Taylor, the mayor of Indian Wells. The topic is data centers, and how wonderful and amazing they are. But Mr. Taylor isn’t writing about data centers in his own city, or data centers in general.

Instead, he’s weighing in … no, that’s not the right phrase … he’s delivering a condescending lecture on how the city of Coachella needs to “wake up” and accept the presence of a massive data canter there. Here are the first four paragraphs of the lecture:

Wake up, Coachella.

You have a weak tax base. You do not have a significant hotel corridor. No major retail. No large employer. You don’t even own the festival that bears your name: Coachella. Indio owns that festival and the millions of dollars that come annually with ticket fees and festival cost reimbursements.

The Stronghold Power proposal would span more than 400 acres and include six data center buildings, making it one of the largest developments of its kind in California. The project could generate tens of millions in new revenue for the city—that’s transformational.

This breathtaking project would bring jobs, infrastructure improvements, and affordable housing opportunities to the region. Coachella could gain critical energy independence. The land being used is fallowed agricultural farmland, which is one of the least harmful conversion scenarios imaginable.

Yes, he really called a data center project “breathtaking.”

He then goes on to say, about water concerns: “Give me a break. Hyperscale facilities increasingly use air cooling or closed-loop systems.” Other than pointing out that agriculture uses a lot of water, too, that’s all he has to say about data centers and water.

I was wondering about Mr. Taylor’s qualifications to lecture the leaders of another city on the wonders of data centers, so I went to the city of Indian Wells website to read his bio. Here are the first two paragraphs:

Dr. Toper Taylor is a successful entrepreneur, strategist, curiositist, Emmy award winning producer, Doctor of Policy, Planning and Development, expert of intention and subtle energetic sciences, and a recently elected city councilman. 

In his landmark dissertation, the Human Performance Intention Experiment, Dr. Taylor showed that sending positive intentions using a quantum field framework improved athletic performance for an NCAA Division I swim team. There may be other exciting applications of intention, such as business innovation and health improvement.

I looked up the word “curiositist” in my Funk and Wagnall’s, and it wasn’t in there, so I googled the word. Turns out Google doesn’t really have much about it, either. In fact, that aforementioned bio is the No. 2 search result:

While Mr. Taylor’s bio is definitely interesting, I didn’t see anything in it indicating expertise on data centers.

Coincidentally, The Conversation published a piece today on the topic of data centers, and it was written by folks—three people from George Mason University—who actually do have expertise on data centers. The headline: “5 ways data centers endanger their local communities and the country as a whole.” They wrote:

In the U.S., Virginia has more data centers than any other state—over 600, two-thirds of which are in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. In 2023, the state’s data centers consumed about 26% of Virginia’s total electricity supply—a higher share than in any other state.

We study science communication, climate science and public health, so we wanted to understand how data centers in Virginia affect the people who live near them and the broader public.

We found that the data centers that already exist affect nearby residents and the nation as a whole in five main areas: air quality, water quality, noise levels, land use and energy costs.

About water specifically, they write: “Data centers require vast quantities of water to cool their servers. Globally, they are projected to consume between 4.2 billion and 6.6 billion cubic meters of water annually by 2027. In the United States, data centers already rank among the top 10 industrial water users.”

Turns out the experts have a different view on the topic than the curiositist.

Data Centers are a complex, difficult topic. For a good primer: Erin Brockovich’s latest project involves data centers, and “the need for sustainable, secure, and efficient AI data center practices.” You can learn more about that here.

There’s no question that because of AI and other demands, data centers are necessary. Mr. Taylor is correct when he writes: “California desperately needs data centers to support AI infrastructure. Coachella rejecting this data center doesn’t eliminate this strategic, essential demand; rather it moves the tax revenue, jobs, and energy load to another California city—or worse, Nevada or Arizona, where it generates zero benefit for California and the Coachella Valley.”

Of course, Mr. Taylor has the right to express his views on this topic. We have the First Amendment, after all—and thank heavens that we do.

But his attitude and sense of entitlement are appalling. In this piece, we have the mayor of an affluent, 87 percent white city telling—in a manner oozing with condescension—the leaders and residents of a less-affluent 97 percent Hispanic city that they should accept a data center, because it will bring much-needed revenue to their city … a city he feels the need to demean throughout the second paragraph. And he does all of this while dismissing residents’ very real, confirmed-by-experts concerns with a glib: “Give me a break.”

If data centers are so breathtaking and transformational, Mr. Taylor should try to find a way to welcome one to Indian Wells—and he should leave the residents of Coachella alone to decide their own fate.

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• I don’t think enough is being said about the white-supremacist nature of the Trump administration. As evidence, I offer you this piece from the Independent (U.K.): “New figures released by the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration reveal that the U.S. has accepted 5,948 refugees into the country for the year to date, all of whom are from South Africa. It follows a presidential memo issued on 30 September last year when Donald Trump made it clear that he intended to cut the number of refugees allowed into the United States to just 7,500 per year and grant priority to white South Africans. ‘The admissions numbers shall primarily be allocated among Afrikaners from South Africa pursuant to Executive Order 14204, and other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands,’ read the memo addressed to the secretaries of the State, Homeland Security and Health and Human Services departments.” That’s worth re-iterating: “The U.S. has accepted 5,948 refugees into the country for the year to date, all of whom are from South Africa.”

• Related: A judge has ruled that the president does not have the authority to require huge fees for H-1B visas. CNN says: “A federal judge on Monday voided President Donald Trump’s requirement of a $100,000 application fee for H-1B visas, ruling that he lacked authority to impose the new policy for a program used by companies to hire highly skilled foreign workers in specialized fields. U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin said that only Congress had the power to change federal immigration policy to include such a requirement, which he viewed as a tax, and that lawmakers had not given the executive branch permission to unilaterally make the change. … H-1B visas allow foreign professionals to seek work in professions that are considered to be more specialized. Applicants must hold a bachelor’s degree or a similar equivalent. The visa is valid for three years and can be renewed for another three years. Economists have argued the program allows U.S. companies to maintain competitiveness and grow their business, creating more jobs in the U.S. … Natalie Baldassarre, a Justice Department spokesperson, said the DOJ ‘is committed to protecting American workers and fully supports President Trump’s America First agenda,’ and pointed to an earlier ruling in the administration’s favor in a separate challenge to the policy.”

• Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon removed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from a list of religions considered Christian. That did not go over well. The Washington Post offers an update: “The Defense Department on Monday edited its new list of religious ‘codes’ for service members so that no group is labeled ‘Christian’—drawing praise from Mormon lawmakers who were angered last week when their faith was categorized as outside of Christianity. On Friday, the Pentagon released a new, dramatically pared-down list of categories by which members of the military can be identified to receive religious and spiritual services. The list classified groups including Catholic, evangelical and Methodist, among others, with the tag: ‘Christian.’ The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was listed without the tag. After the outcry from several leaders who are members of the Mormon Church, the revised list simply states religious groups, without adding the tag ‘Christian’ to any. U.S. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who is Mormon and had spoken out multiple times over the weekend on social media against the list, posted on X on Monday that he was ‘grateful’ to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for the change.”

• ProPublica did a genetic deep-dive into measles cases in the United States. Here’s what they found: “For a quarter century, the U.S. only saw outbreaks when infected travelers brought the virus in from abroad. The resulting waves of measles didn’t last more than a year. Those days are gone. Measles began tearing through the dusty plains of West Texas in January last year, and since then, all but a handful of states have seen cases. Two unvaccinated Texas girls and an adult across the border in New Mexico died before the West Texas outbreak seemed to burn out last July. By then, measles was popping up in Utah, and state health officials couldn’t tell where the earliest patients had caught the virus. Infections in that state took off that fall and winter and continued into May of this year. The Texas and Utah cases now sit at the center of an unusually technical—and politically fraught—question: whether the United States will lose its measles-free distinction. Countries aren’t penalized for losing the status, but it’s an indication of cracks in a nation’s once rock-solid immunization programs, a loss of faith in vaccines among its people—or both. To have any chance of keeping the designation, the U.S. will need to make a strong case that measles didn’t spread endemically—from person to person in a continuous chain within the country for more than a year.”

• This is an important one: Today’s recall news involves … Target baby wipes! The Los Angeles Times reports: “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a recall notice for a brand of baby wipes with the potential to cause a bacterial contamination that could result in serious or life-threatening infections in newborns and young children, and those with compromised immune systems. The recall of the wipes—Target brand Up & Up Fragrance Free and Cucumber Scented Baby Wipes—came after Target and the manufacturer, Sapro Temizlik Urunleri, received numerous customer complaints of ‘product discoloration.’ There were also reports of skin irritation, eye irritation and infections allegedly associated with the use of the wipes. The reports continue to be under investigation by the manufacturer and Target. … The wipes were sold at Target stores nationwide and online on the store website.”

• And finally … Hunter Biden is now regularly posting on Twitter X—and his presence there has proven to be rather fascinating. USA Today reports: “Hunter Biden was once considered the free-wheeling ‘Black sheep’ of his famous first family: the lost laptop-owning, crack cocaine-using, womanizing recipient of a preemptive presidential pardon. And Biden seemingly considered all of that when publishing a series of X-rated social media posts on X (formerly Twitter) that poke fun at his past scandals. In doing so, the ‘Beautiful Things’ memoirist is now a public-facing advocate for the arts and sobriety after battling drug and alcohol addiction. His social media success comes during the same week his stepmother, former first lady Jill Biden, has received mixed reviews for a post-White House memoir, ‘View from the East Wing,’ released June 2, and President Donald Trump faces higher disapproval ratings. Biden voyaged in recent months to reclaim his public narrative from Trump. Last month, he joined conservative Candace Owens for a wide-ranging interview on the new Trump foe’s hit podcast and appeared for a three-hour sit-down last year on host Andrew Callaghan’s ‘Channel 5’ online series. None of his previous attempts at candor have garnered the same public response as the intimacy – and immediacy—of his online posts.”

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