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What Weâ€
re Following
Testing the waters: In a special election this week, the residents of Toledo, Ohio, took the unusual step of adopting a bill of rights for a lake. A ballot measure will amend the cityâ€s charter to establish that Lake Erie has the right to “exist, flourish, and naturally evolve,â€� giving legal rights to the source of drinking water for 11 million people.
Toldeoâ€s move makes it the first municipality in the country to adopt a “rights-of-natureâ€� law over a certain ecosystem. The action is already being challenged in court, but if it stands, it will allow citizens to sue polluters on the Great Lakeâ€
s behalf without having to demonstrate injury to a human. Past problems with Lake Erieâ€
s water quality prompted activists to find new ways to safeguard it. “For three days in 2014, we lost access to our drinking water, and we didnâ€
t see any action come out of that,â€� one organizer tells CityLabâ€
s Nicole Javorsky, “We wanted to do something for ourselves.�
�Andrew Small
More on CityLab
Red Carpet Treatment

Thereâ€s a simple reason why commuters typically prefer trains over buses: Buses have to share. The rubber-tired coaches could almost run as reliably as rail if not for all those other vehicles on the road. Thatâ€
s why city leaders should be bullish about building dedicated bus lanes, or to “tactical transit lanes,â€� to whip up bus-only infrastructure on the cheap, according to a new report from UCLAâ€
s Institute of Transportation Studies. Simply by running pilots with cones, a city can figure how much faster buses can run when they have their own lane. Once people see the benefits, cities can lay down a coat of red paint and just add service. CityLabâ€
s Laura Bliss has the how-to guide: To Build a Better Bus Lane, Just Paint It
What Weâ€
re Reading
New York leaders urge Bezos to reconsider Amazon dumping the city (Bloomberg)
How tiny shotgun houses could help solve Dallasâ€s housing crisis (Dallas News)
Op-ed: The new “dream home� should be a condo (New York Times)
“Theyâ€re cutting everythingâ€�: As coal disappears, Appalachians lose access to basic services (Southerly)
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