Introduction to the Detroit Neighborhood Guidebook
No matter how many books are done about Detroit, it’s still impossible to capture this city’s ethos into a finite number of pages. But damn if we don’t come close sometimes.
D.L.I.V.E – Rebuilding The Lives Of Gunshot Victims In Detroit
In a small conference room at Detroit Medical Center’s Sinai Grace Hospital, violence intervention specialist Ray Winans asks a roomful of young African Americans if they know anyone who has been killed by gunshots.
Be the First to Get Belt’s ‘Detroit Neighborhood Guidebook’!
The Detroit Neighborhood Guidebook is ready for pre-order! If you loved A Detroit Anthology and How to Live in Detroit Without Being a [...]
The Great Lakes are sicker than we think
By Matt Stansberry In The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, journalist Dan Egan makes the case that the [...]
Living LGBT in the Midwest in the Time of Trump
I’ve tried over and over and over to try and push out some thoughts about gay life in the Midwest. What exactly is there to be said that would help outsiders understand what we’re like around these parts? I keep coming up short.
The Ecology of Ruin
As a grad student in ecology, I spent a lot of time in the woods with a camera for company. I was living in upstate New York, studying how plants recolonize forests growing up on old fields, and why some return faster than others.
Angels of Detroit by Christopher Hebert: A Q&A
By Kelsey Ronan Detroit is a city of contradictions. It’s a city stricken by poverty and population loss, of [...]
Airheads in Public Square: Does Cleveland Have The Money for The RNC?
The scene in Public Square was downright idyllic in the hours before the RNC began. As Belt editor Martha Bayne and I lounged on a picnic table in the shade Sunday afternoon, I watched happy kids playing in the new fountains.
How You Should Be Talking About Detroit
Every year on Mackinac Island, a resort spot in Lake Huron, off the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the Detroit Regional Chamber — something akin to a downtown development agency — holds an annual gathering...
Call for Submissions: Detroit Neighborhood Guidebook
Detroiters need to get to know their neighbors better. Wait -- maybe that should be, Detroiters should get to know their neighborhoods better.
On Not Winning A House In Detroit
This month, a nonprofit called Write A House announced the third and fourth winners of its unusually generous Detroit revitalization scheme: whole houses in Detroit, for writers, forever, for free.
What To Do When You’re Accused Of Gentrifying
Uh-oh, it finally happened. You’re caught in a debate -- most likely on Facebook -- about gentrification in Detroit. And everything was going just fine until someone called you -- you! -- a cause of gentrification.