Pave paradise, and put up a parking lot
From Trieste to Tromsø, municipalities around Europe are doing everything they can to make their cities more pedestrian friendly and choosing to prioritise people over cars. But not Reykjavík! Earlier this month, the Sjálfstæðisflokkur, Framsóknarflokkur and Viðreisn majority announced that they would be removing benches, tables, bicycle parking and plants to create 15 new parking spots downtown. Among the spaces being demolished are the tables outside of Kaffibarinn and Kaldi and by Gamla Bíó.
Representatives of the Social Democratic Alliance point out that the city is at the same time running a campaign to get people using its downtown parking garages, which hold 2,000 spaces and sit underused. Ripping out tables and bike parking to claw back 15 spaces, they argue, makes little sense.
At this point can anyone tell that Miðflokkurinn isn’t in the municipal government? In fact, this is very unambitious, the square outside of Hallgrímskirkja has space for plenty of parking spaces. Just think of all the cars that could park if we paved over Austurvöllur. Beep, beep.
Rubio and Ice Spice visit
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Iceland October 5, 2026, just in time for two spectacular shows. One: the Northern Lights, in vivid display. And two: Ice Spice, the pop star, who used a vacation with documented Iceland-lover Millie Bobby Brown to produce viral bikini photos from Hvammsvík. While the photos of Ice Spice dominated social media, Marco held court with remarkable confidence in a press conference with our cover star, Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir. The U.S. politician accurately summarised the history of the U.S.-Iceland relationship, made no overt threats, and seemed so competent that onlookers could hardly help thinking, “How the hell did this guy lose to Trump?”
Rent brake “obviously very stupid”
The government has proposed a cap on rent increases in a bill from Minister of Social Affairs and Housing Ragnar Þór Ingólfsson, amending the Residential Leases Act. Under the bill, scheduled rent increases during a lease term could only occur once every 12 months and could not exceed the rise in the consumer price index. Not everyone agreed with Ragnar’s proposal to keep rents in check. Central Bank Governor Ásgeir Jónsson called the government’s planned rent brake “obviously very stupid,” saying he hoped it would be dropped and that the measure could make matters worse. It was an unusually blunt and somewhat rude response from Iceland’s top technocrat.
Before Ásgeir became the man controlling Iceland’s monetary policy, his seminal work for investment company GAMMA showed that rents had gone down following the 2008 crash. That work provided the strategy that led to the boom in companies buying apartments and renting them out to the public.