Belt Magazine Fellowship: Dispatches from RNC 2016
Belt Magazine, based in Cleveland, Ohio, is offering a one week fellowship for a freelance journalist interested in covering the Republican National Convention from July 18-21.
An Interview with Matthew Desmond
One-third. For more than 100 years that’s been the standard measure for figuring housing costs in the United States: you should pay no more than one-third of your income in rent or mortgage payments.
What John Kasich Says Is Bullshit, But How He Says It Hits Home
John Kasich, you don’t speak for my people: most denizens of the Mon Valley aren’t clamoring for corporate tax breaks and massive deregulation. But — and maybe this is more important — you speak like my people.
Twelve Tips For Journalists Covering RNC 2016 In Cleveland
Are you writing a thinkpiece on Donald Trump’s comments about “riots” in Cleveland during the Republican National Convention? Covering violence at Trump rallies and want to include possible slugfests...
How Michigan’s Municipal Policies Led To Crises In Detroit and Flint
Michigan has the most decrepit cities in the United States...It’s not just a result of neglect. It’s a result of policy.
East Cleveland Abandoned Wasteland
A video drive-through and commentary of East Cleveland, Ohio by Jamal Collins, a visual communication design instructor, providing art education at Cleveland's Boys and Girls Club.
On Leaving Detroit
I have a dear friend who is planning to leave Detroit very soon to move West. After living in and around Detroit all his life, he is taking a new job in sunny California. He is, by definition, the very demographic Michigan wants to hold on to...
No Surprise: The Rust Belt Knows What the Pundits Don’t
After months and months of media coverage declaring “economic populism” the theme of the presidential campaign – and for both parties, no less – it would be easy to succumb to short-term amnesia...
Brier Hill
Youngstown’s Brier Hill sits along the first ridge out of the Mahoning Valley to the east. We traveled there weekly for church, back to the brick streets and slate sidewalks of my mother’s childhood.
Flint’s Water Problems are the Symptom, Not the Disease
I don’t recognize the Flint I’m seeing on TV these days. I was born in Flint, Michigan, in 1953, and attended public schools from kindergarten through high school, and two years of college, before leaving in 1973...
Cleveland’s Recovery Never Happened, Report Finds
Cleveland is the most economically distressed large city in the country, with three out of four residents living in zip codes with high rates of poverty, joblessness, and vacant housing.
A Flint Manifesto for the Rust Belt
Flint’s water crisis has become an alarm bell that’s ringing across the country, especially in the Midwest. Now that the poisoning of a Michigan city has become national news, the press and public are looking for lessons.