Jersey used to fight like this all the time. It’s good to see it back.

Jackson Township just became the 38th New Jersey municipality to ban data centers, following right behind Stafford Township, the first town in Ocean County to do it. That makes four Ocean County towns now on record against them, joining Manchester and Howell, both of which I've already written about this summer. But the more I sit with this story, the less it feels like it's really about data centers at all.

It's about something bigger, and I've been watching it build all summer

Think about everything New Jersey residents have organized against this year. Diamond Beach fought back on parking. Andover Township fought a data center. Hillsborough packed a township meeting over property taxes, in a moment that genuinely echoed the 1990 Jim Florio tax revolt this very station was born covering. Manchester residents showed up over a possible data center near the Pinelands. Howell banned them outright. North Brunswick killed a 300,000-square-foot warehouse project. Franklin Township took on Flock camera surveillance, and that fight went statewide within a week. Now Jackson and Stafford, on data centers again. Different issues, same instinct: show up, speak up, and don't just accept what's being handed to you.

SEE ALSO: Hillsborough property tax revolt echoes NJ 101.5's own history

We used to do this all the time. Then, somewhere along the way, we mostly stopped.

New Jersey had this exact fighting spirit in the 1990s. The property tax revolt that helped build this radio station's own identity was real, organized, loud, and effective. Somewhere between then and now, a lot of that energy quietly drained out of the state. Some residents just accepted things the way they were. Others didn't stick around to fight at all, they packed up and left for cheaper states instead, which is its own story I've written about more than once this year. Either way, the net result was the same: less pushback, less organizing, less of that instinct to show up to a Tuesday night council meeting and actually say something.

This year, that instinct came back

Jackson Councilman Chris Pollak put it plainly when his town's ban passed: "I've been fighting to prohibit data centers in Jackson because I believe our responsibility is to protect our residents, our natural resources, and the character of our town." That's not really a data center quote. That's a civic engagement quote. It could just as easily have been said about parking in Diamond Beach or property taxes in Hillsborough.

I don't know if this is a permanent shift or a summer-long moment. But I've spent months now watching New Jersey residents, town after town, issue after issue, decide that showing up still matters. After years of feeling like that spirit had left the state along with a lot of its people, it's genuinely good to see it come home.