Karrie Jacobs
@karrieurbanist
Writer. Mostly cities, architecture and design. Also the politics of public space, technology and trees. Faculty at SVA’s DCrit. South Brooklyn and the Western Catskills.
Like parts of Spain and France, Eastern Washington is burning. Below is a photo (by John Stember) of a Spokane neighborhood covered with fire retardant. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/02/u...
And you can thank Trump, Musk, and all the geniuses of DOGE for 2026’s Summer of Shit. (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2026/07/23/w...
I was going to rank them from most maddening to least maddening, but I can’t do it.
“In 2012 Gilauri was ousted as prime minister. After the transfer of power, construction on the Rike Tubes was suspended. The Rike Tubes have sat vacant, and unfinished ever since.” Demolition imminent. www.archpaper.com/2026/07/rike... ( Photo: Yaroslav Lukiyanchenko)
That orangey circle in the sky isn’t a pencil eraser. It’s the sun partially eclipsed by smoke.
Trumpistan’s Great American State Fair. Doesn’t look very celebratory, does it? Photo: Al Drago/Getty Images
From today’s online Wash Post, a snapshot of where we are as a nation…
And, on top of everything else, the Trump admin now owns a “flesh-eating maggot outbreak.” What next? Zombies?
What next forJohn J. Cafaro of Greenwater Services? A post at the EPA? www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/u...
Coming soon* to the Transit Museum in downtown Brooklyn, an elegy to the orange seats that were the hallmark of vintage 1980s subway cars. *No date is mentioned in the article or on the Transit Museum website. (Painting by VH McKenzie) www.thecityreporter.nyc/2026/06/17/s...
Trump’s cage-match extravaganza is scheduled to run from 8 p.m. to midnight. As are the thunderstorms.
The photo is from a Times story about the Obama Presidential Center. The caption: “A replica of the Oval Office from the Obama administration. President Trump has made significant changes to the office.” www.nytimes.com/2026/06/04/u...
Buildings inside buildings. Left: Micanopy, Florida (2005). Right: Akron, Alabama, 2003.
“Red Cross volunteers hanging protective gloves to dry after washing them for reuse at Mongbwalu General Hospital.” Ebola is spreading in the heart of Africa. No vaccine for this strain. No USAID. Donate to Doctors w/o Borders. Photo: Arlette Bashizi. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/30/w...
Was awake at 3 a.m. thinking about the Portland anti-ICE protests that were less than a year ago, but seem very distant. Whimsy is a luxury. Especially in a post Renee Good/Alex Pretti world. I don’t get the sense that there’s much room for it outside Delaney Hall. (photo: Alicia Lozano / NBC)
Pope Leo is thinking critically about AI, as a sane, reasonably honest President might. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/25/w...
From today’s LA Times, the paper with the world’s clunkiest website. enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/art...
The sushi thing is funny, but the rest just stinks. gizmodo.com/did-trump-ac...
The Judgement Fund was just sitting there waiting to be misappropriated by an administration that’s wall-to-wall grifter. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/b...
One of several reminders from Krugman that Europeans are happier and healthier than we are here in the USA. open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...
It often looks to me like the night shift headlines are more honest. (Then the day shift comes in and waters them down.)
Must be difficult to write the same headline every day. Or several times a day.