Tom Markus: City Manager, reader

You know what I like about Iowa City Manager Tom Markus? He's a reader.

That's good thing for the helmsman of the City of Literature.

In just about every City Council agenda packet since he started in Iowa City, Markus has included some news article as food for thought for council members.

It's not an agenda item or an in-depth study about one the most pressing of council's current concerns. Just a clip. This week, it was a Wall Street Journal article about how online shopping is killing local shopping malls, leaving cities holding the shopping bag.

I don't know why it tickles me so much, especially when the article is as depressing as this latest. It just seems a little homey, tucked there into the council packet next to dry reports and tables of data, letters from constituents and minutes from commissions. What's this? Oh, just a little newspaper article from the City Manager, as if to say to councilors: "Hey, I was flipping through the paper the other day and this article reminded me of you."