Preserving Grandeur
Along the endless row of cookie-cutter homes on Cleveland’s Warren Road, the Marquard House stands as a mute witness to a rich history.
Return of the Club: Youngstown’s Good Old Days Reborn on the Fifth Floor
All George Guarnieri was looking for was a liquor license. What he found was the remnants of a Youngstown institution.
A Rust Belt Education: Part Two
On a glorious Saturday morning, Erika Harrison pulled up to her house in East Cleveland, bounced out of a sparkling red Chevy Equinox minivan, and walked briskly to her front door ...
A Rust Belt Education: Part One
It has been more than four decades since money problems forced Jerry Schlueter to cut short his broadcast degree at Ohio University.
Rust Belt Refugees – May 2015
These profiles tell the story of “Rust Belt Refugees” – former residents of the Rust Belt who have for one reason or another moved on to different parts of the country.
Readers’ Corner: The Dickeyville Grotto
In the pamphlet that you can purchase in the gift shop of the Dickeyville Grotto and Shrines in Dickeyville, Wisconsin (population: 1,061 souls), the anonymous author writes ...
Weekly Links Roundup
News of the Rust Belt from around the world, brought to you weekly by the staff of Belt.
An Interview with Sarah Carson
Sarah Carson’s new collection of prose poems, Buick City, begins with freight trains rattling past Flint’s closed automotive plants, and ends with a mechanic spitting on the city’s grave.
Why Can’t Cleveland Be More Like a Bicycle?
The road racing bicycle is one of history’s great design achievements: it multiplies the potential of the human body, allowing a person to travel much greater distances and at much greater speeds.
Zoo Camp For All
My son, Nico, loves the zoo. He’s eight years old, and going there inspires, engages, and delights him in a way that few other activities or places can.
Reading The Midwest: Space Aliens And Police States
In late March, novelist Marilynne Robinson caused a stir after a reading when she casually let slip that she was working on a fourth novel set in the fictional town of Gilead, Iowa.
Sitting Ducks: The Mystery of the Cleveland “Duck Factory”
Abandoned, in a Cleveland building slated for destruction, ducks sit, waiting. Rubber ducks, that is.