Zach Remi has built one of New England’s most-followed social media pages by mining the everyday absurdities of life in New England—and by his own account, he’d just as soon keep politics out of it.
The man behind “New England Dad” is a native Granite Stater: he grew up in Kingston, went to Keene State, and spent about 15 years as a teacher before a decade-long detour to Massachusetts (“don’t hold it against me”). He’s since moved back, settling with his wife’s family in Springfield, a tiny town built around a lake and surrounded by the woods and farms he says make New Hampshire worth defending.
That instinct is what pushed him off the political sidelines. When a data center was proposed in Nottingham, Remi posted a video opposing it—and it took off, racking up more than 270,000 views and resonating far beyond his usual comedy audience. Granite Post spoke with Remi about why he felt the need to speak up, what the reaction was, and why this issue feels so personal in a small state like New Hampshire.
Responses have been condensed and lightly edited for length and clarity.
You usually keep your page apolitical. Why speak up on this one?
I try to remain a pure comedy page online — anybody can watch my page. But there are certain issues, especially local ones, where I feel like I have a place to talk about it as a lifelong resident. I was a teacher for about 15 years, so I’m political in my personal life. This was one of those issues.
What was the video about?
They’re popping up all over the country, and now it’s coming toward New England. I made the video basically in defense of our natural world up here. We have a long history of private land, and we’re proud of that. A lot of people keep their land open to the public through something called current use—if you keep your land in current use, meaning people can walk, hunt, fish or hike it, your taxes stay at a more reasonable level. If you don’t keep it open, you pay exorbitant taxes.
What concerns you most?
Environmental impacts are at the top of the list for me, but it’s also that they’re not going to create a ton of jobs. They’re taking resources, they’re taking away that land. Most of what we’re hearing is negative.
What kind of response did you get?
I think the majority of people agree on this. The ones who don’t are kind of the hard-nosed New Hampshire Republican, whose opinion is basically freedom of business—I can do what I want on my land with my land.” But my argument back is: not if it’s going to destroy my drinking water, and not if it’s going to raise my electrical bills higher than they already are.
What do you want to see from lawmakers?
If a certain town wants this for whatever reason, they should be able to make that decision. But when a whole town like Nottingham stands up and says we want no part of this, and somebody can come in and say “too bad, so sad”—that’s not right either. Towns should have a say in what businesses belong there.
Any final thoughts?
