The Hamlet Rankings

What towns fight about at the mic

We read the meetings. We count the people whose comments took a side on each question, for and against, and rank the places.

How these rankings work · Cite as: Hamlet City Index Rankings, October 2026

82,000+ meetings read
1,600+ places with remarks on file
2,200+ officials with remarks on the record

Data centers, place by place

In 300 of 355 places, most comments on data centers were against

Hayward, CA ranks #8 most opposed to data centers among mid-size places. See Hayward’s meetings

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Should the city allow data centers? Against means a ban, a moratorium or tight limits. For means letting them build. Each dot is a place where 3 or more people spoke: across, how their comments split, from all against to all for; up, how many spoke.

More against
Even
More for

Also came up in 182 more places where fewer than 3 people spoke

358 places where it came up · 2,291 people whose comments took a side: 1,947 against, 344 forMeetings since Oct 19, 2024 (the same 24 months for every topic); newest Sep 17, 2026. Source: Hamlet, from public meeting video. Automated reading of each comment. It can miss or misread some. Fainter dots have not yet met the ranking bar (10 people at 2 or more meetings).

How often it comes up

Came up in 16% of meetings in Q3, up 28% from Q2

Share of meetings tracked that took it up, by quarter. Source: Hamlet.

Most opposed

Places where more people spoke against, ranked by the method's score (10 voices at the national rate added), so a big crowd outranks a small one. Each person counts once. Numbered places have 10 or more people at 2 or more meetings.

Most opposed on data centers: the places shown, with how many people took each side
Rank	Place	Against	For
1	Brownsville TX Share	44	0
2	Franklin VA Share	35	0
3	Modesto CA Share	30	0
4	Rockford IL Share	18	0
5	Kalamazoo MI Share	34	1
6	Richland WA Share	31	1
7	Waterloo IA Share	14	0
8	Hayward CA Share	13	0
9	Federal Way WA Share	11	0
10	Hillsboro OR Share	23	1

136 more places. The full list and the split between officials and the public are part of Hamlet for business, our paid service.

Get the full list

Most supportive

Places where more people spoke for, ranked by the method's score (10 voices at the national rate added), so a big crowd outranks a small one. Each person counts once.

Most supportive on data centers: the places shown, with how many people took each side
Rank	Place	Against	For
Too few people or meetings to rank yet
	Salem OR	1	6
	West Des Moines IA	0	4
	Pittsylvania VA	1	4
	Murfreesboro TN	0	3
	Gallatin TN	2	4
	Franklin WA	0	2
	Dayton OH	0	2
	Rancho Cordova CA	0	1
	Everett WA	0	1
	El Dorado CA	0	1

136 more places. The full list and the split between officials and the public are part of Hamlet for business.

Get the full list

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How these rankings work

Where it comes from: Public meetings of city councils, county boards, planning commissions and school boards, read from each body's own video and transcripts.
What is counted: Every remark about the topic, found by the same search terms in every place and marked for, against, mixed or neutral by an automated reader, with a second model checking each one. Mixed and neutral remarks are not counted.
People, not remarks: Each person counts once per place and topic, on the side they took most often, however many times they spoke. A person split evenly takes no side.
How officials count: Today every speaker counts once: in the meetings counted now, a speaker's role is only an automated guess. Once our roster confirms who an official is, elected and appointed officials will count as 3, since they decide the outcome and speak on the record under their own names. Public commenters and staff count as 1 and are never named.
The score: Weighted voices against, divided by weighted voices for and against. Before ranking, every place gets 10 more voices at the national rate for the topic, so a place with four voices cannot top the list by chance; a place with a hundred barely moves.
Who is ranked: A place where at least 10 people spoke on the question, each counted once, at at least 2 different meetings in the last 24 months. The weight for officials orders the ranked places; it never lets a place in. Places with fewer show as lighter dots and are not ranked.
Same-size places: Places are ranked only against places their size: large (250,000 or more), mid-size (50,000 to 250,000) and small (under 50,000).
What it is not: Not a poll of residents. It is the public record of who showed up and what officials said. The places are those whose meetings we hold, not a sample of the country.