Daily Inspiration Quote by Hugh Newell Jacobsen

In a city that congratulates itself on democratic process, Jacobsen points to a quieter monarchy: the people who narrate the place. Calling columnists the "permanent power brokers" is less a compliment than an x-ray. Mayors cycle out, agency heads get fired, developers rise and fall. The columnist remains, sitting in the same chair, speaking in the same omnipresent voice, turning yesterday's squabble into today's common sense.

The adjective "permanent" does the heavy lifting. Jacobsen, an architect who worked in Washington's ecosystem of commissions, patrons, and taste, understood how power actually endures: not just through votes or budgets, but through storylines. Columnists don't merely report outcomes; they pre-load the public with frames that make certain outcomes feel inevitable, reasonable, even inevitable-in-retrospect. Their influence is cumulative, a drip system rather than a flood. One approving profile can launder a reputation; one withering line can make a policy radioactive before it ever reaches daylight.

There's also professional self-defense in the remark. Architects are forever building for committees, and committees are forever reading the paper. In that context, Jacobsen is warning that the real client is often the city's self-image, as curated by a handful of bylines. The subtext: if you want to change the city, you don't only lobby officials. You court the narrators, because they control the mood music that officials, donors, and voters all hear.