Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Karrie Jacobs

@karrieurbanist.bsky.social

1.3K followers 1.3K following 3.8K posts

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.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Karrie Jacobs @karrieurbanist.bsky.social · Jun 17

As 270 Park nears completion, I review my decades long fascination with architect Norman Foster, and the lifecycle of starchitecture.

www.thenation.com/article/cult...

Norman Foster’s 270 Park and the Rise of the New Office Building

The building's dramatic and dazzling feats of architecture make it appear as if it were hovering above the street. But is that a good thing?

www.thenation.com

2 9

Karrie Jacobs @karrieurbanist.bsky.social · 9h

open.substack.com/pub/anntelna...

Shot in the head with pepper spray

This is Trump's America

open.substack.com

Karrie Jacobs @karrieurbanist.bsky.social · 11h

Can’t have everything.

1 2

Karrie Jacobs @karrieurbanist.bsky.social · 11h

One night in the ‘80s, I was waiting in line for a movie — maybe in front of the Waverly — with my boyfriend. This woman walked by who we both instantly recognized. She wasn’t fabulously dressed, but she seemed to glow, to radiate light like a star. Seeing Diane Keaton walk by was somehow magical.

Diane Keaton, a Star of ‘Annie Hall’ and ‘First Wives Club,’ Dies at 79

www.nytimes.com

1 1 5

Karrie Jacobs @karrieurbanist.bsky.social · 12h

Word.

Damion @damionmatthews.bsky.social · 4d

“There is so much about this moment that is trying to make people feel like they’ve lost their minds, when, in fact, these muthafuckas are crazy.” -- @kamalaharris.com

*Originally posted by @madampolitick.bsky.social at X.

Karrie Jacobs @karrieurbanist.bsky.social · 15h

“Wander around the area today and you’ll find a neighborhood reduced to ashes as Lululemon still stands.”

Carolina Miranda on Carusoland.

nyra.nyc/articles/mal...

MallFresco

Rick Caruso’s Cheesecake Factory of the mind

nyra.nyc

1 1

Karrie Jacobs @karrieurbanist.bsky.social · 17h

Arguably, it’s a good strategy to leave the insoluble problems out of a cease-fire deal. Still, the fact that there’s been no agreement about who governs Gaza, whether Hamas disarms, or whether Israel withdraws suggests that peace is still a long way off.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Israel-Hamas Cease-Fire: What's Next for Gaza Aid, Hostages and More

A step-by-step look at what’s next in Gaza for the hostages, Israel’s military and the delivery of aid.

www.nytimes.com

Karrie Jacobs @karrieurbanist.bsky.social · 18h

Sanity break: Clouds by Gerhard Richter

www.davidzwirner.com/exhibitions/...

Exceptional Works: Gerhard Richter | Wolken (Clouds), 2025 | David Zwirner

Featured on the occasion of an exhibition by Gerhard Richter at David Zwirner in Paris, Wolken (blau) (Clouds [Blue]) (2025) and Wolken (rosa) (Clouds [Pink]) (2025) are two of monumental three-panel ...

www.davidzwirner.com

Karrie Jacobs @karrieurbanist.bsky.social · 19h

Carolina Miranda was asked by the Washington Post to write a series of columns on the aesthetic culture of Trumpism. Great gig…until they pulled the plug on her. I guess they didn’t think she was writing “in support and defense of…personal liberties and free markets.”

Here’s her final column:

The column WaPo didn't run

In this edition: thoughts about Charlie Kirk and the nature of Confederate monuments

buttondown.com

Karrie Jacobs @karrieurbanist.bsky.social · 19h

Australia is moving forward, while we are being dragged backward.

www.wired.com/story/as-coa...

Australia’s March Toward 100 Percent Clean Energy

The country’s grid operator says shifting from coal to clean power is not only possible but inevitable. The work there could provide a road map for other countries.

www.wired.com

Karrie Jacobs @karrieurbanist.bsky.social · 20h

The Chicago minister who was targeted and attacked multiple times by ICE agents points out how undisciplined and poorly supervised they are. Makes sense. They are there to foment chaos.

Bruno J. Navarro @brunojnavarro.bsky.social · 20h

are shooters of priests ever the good guys throughout history

Pastor shot by ICE with pepper balls speaks out in first TV interview | CNN

Pastor hit by ICE pepper balls granted restraining order against government.

www.cnn.com

1 3

Karrie Jacobs @karrieurbanist.bsky.social · 21h

“Those with tickets were required to attend the full series of four talks in addition to respecting the off-the-record policy, the event listing said.”

How does he enforce the attendance policy? A Silicon Valley blacklist? Does he add dropouts to his “might be the Antichrist” list?

Inside billionaire Peter Thiel’s private lectures: Warnings of ‘the Antichrist’ and U.S. destruction

In leaked recordings of private lectures by tech billionaire Peter Thiel he argued that “the Antichrist” is likely to take the form of a critic of technology.

www.washingtonpost.com

Karrie Jacobs @karrieurbanist.bsky.social · 21h

The NJ Turnpike in Secaucus or Kearny, looking like a Roman aqueduct. As seen from Amtrak, 2017.

Karrie Jacobs @karrieurbanist.bsky.social · 22h

“An enormous solar power project in the Nevada desert that would have been one of the world’s largest has been canceled, according to the Interior Department.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/c...

2 5

Karrie Jacobs @karrieurbanist.bsky.social · 22h

Handy chart.

You’ll be shocked (shocked!) to discover that 89% of the EPA’s workers have been furloughed whereas only 5% of the Homeland Security team has been sent home. (Although it appears that the ICE thugs are currently working without pay.)

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

How the Shutdown Is Affecting Federal Services and Workers

The shutdown could lead to more layoffs and suspend the work of at least 600,000 employees, disrupting a wide range of federal programs. Here’s what we know so far.

www.nytimes.com

Karrie Jacobs @karrieurbanist.bsky.social · 23h

Not convinced these guys have ever done much reading.

Schooley @schooley.bsky.social · 1d

I wonder how many ICE dudes read Anne Frank’s diary in high school and thought, “I’d have gotten her sooner.”

Reposted by Karrie Jacobs

Maryn McKenna @marynmck.bsky.social · 1d

Extremely bad news if true (and unlikely this reporter would run with it if not). The MMWR has been the earliest warning bell for outbreaks since it announced the first US cases, in 1981, of what was later identified as AIDS.

This will be a grievous shock to what remains of US public health.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 1d

BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:

10 250 580

Reposted by Karrie Jacobs

Mollie Katzen @molliekatzen.bsky.social · 1d

"President Trump continued to describe Portland as a city on fire Friday even as residents enjoyed the first fall rain and the lone demonstrator at the city’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement building was dressed as a pink Care Bear."

Sometimes there is a good sentence or two in the NYT.

27 620 2.9K

Reposted by Karrie Jacobs

Alex @mplsalex.bsky.social · 1d

I dunno, feels like reaching the “hiding your neighbors from the masked secret police” stage of things in like 9 months doesn’t bode well for the next couple of years.

Sophie Sherry @sophiesherry.bsky.social · 1d

During a military-style raid on a building in Chicago’s South Shore, one resident heard a knock on his door.   It wasn’t the feds — it was a mom and her 7-year-old daughter, pleading for help.

He let them hide in his unit for the next 3 days.

chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

Neighbor shielded 7-year-old during South Shore federal raid: ‘I didn’t want them to take her’

During the Sept. 30 raid one tenant protected a terrified girl and her mom. Remnants at the complex, including a detailed map of all the units, offer clues to what authorities may have known before th...

chicago.suntimes.com

43 200

Karrie Jacobs @karrieurbanist.bsky.social · 1d

Corruption is the new black.

Nick Pinto @nickpinto.bsky.social · 1d

The NYC Department of Correction is extremely serious about projecting an image of reform, lawfulness, and considered, sober judgment these days, so it has decided to rename its Lower Manhattan jail complex after... multiply disgraced criminal Bernie Kerik.

hellgatenyc.com/city-jail-na...

Adams Administration Quietly Renames the Tombs for Disgraced Criminal Bernard Kerik

The Lower Manhattan jail facility briefly bore Kerik's name once before, until he was convicted of corruption.

hellgatenyc.com

Karrie Jacobs @karrieurbanist.bsky.social · 1d

Too bad. Al Jazeera was an unusual force for openness in the Middle East. But if Qatar is as deeply entangled with Trump and Netanyahu as it appears, they will no longer be willing to support independent journalism.

Charles Keener @charleskeener.bsky.social · 1d

israelpalestinenews.org/trump-netany...

Trump and Netanyahu force Qatar to purge Al Jazeera

Change at Al Jazeera, and a sober reflection on Israeli society two years after the October 7 massacre.

israelpalestinenews.org

Karrie Jacobs @karrieurbanist.bsky.social · 1d

What she said…

omallj.bsky.social @omallj.bsky.social · 1d

youtube.com/shorts/TweC6...

BREAKING: ICE brutally attacks female journalist in Chicago and wrecks bystander’s car #shorts

YouTube video by Jess Craven 101

youtube.com

Reposted by Karrie Jacobs

Slackermom @slackermom.bsky.social · 1d

Was just at a neighborhood school at dismissal. Hundreds of people with whistles surrounding the school and stationed down every block making sure ICE doesn’t snatch anyone. The same is happening at all the schools around here. I love my neighborhood and I love Chicago.

29 830 3.8K

Karrie Jacobs @karrieurbanist.bsky.social · 1d

I believe he’s issued a traditional architecture edict this time around, too. May be the only D.C. tradition he values, or claims to value.

1 1

Reposted by Karrie Jacobs

Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 1d

Lawyers have been publicizing a new term to describe ICE's racially targeted detainments: a “Kavanaugh stop.”

Mother Jones reporter Pema Levy explains in this new video:

29 550 1.1K

Karrie Jacobs @karrieurbanist.bsky.social · 1d

Why?

www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/10/w...

WGN-TV producer detained during ICE enforcement action in Lincoln Square

A WGN-TV video editor and producer was roughly detained by two Border Patrol agents on Friday morning during a highly visible rush hour enforcement action in Lincoln Square.