Stoplight
By Amy Jo Burns A long time ago, I fell in love with the stoplight in the center of my [...]
A Walk Through North Collinwood
The Beachland Ballroom is a crowd of people and noise. But there is no band on stage at the iconic music venue on Waterloo Road in Cleveland’s North Collinwood neighborhood.
Celebrities Descend Upon Flint — For Better Or For Worse
It started with Cher calling for Rick Snyder’s head, and really, who could blame her? This was in January, when the media had fully descended upon Flint, Michigan, in the midst of its water crisis...
Happy, Sad, Gay, Or Just Interested: The Queer Legacy of WBFO
Our meeting was improbable, but lucky. I found Alex van Oss through a research project involving the University of Buffalo’s Leo Tolstoy College/College F.
Lamentations Of A Clevelander In Exile
I moved to Cleveland on a whim in 2004. I met a girl while visiting a Clevelander friend and I fell in love with both the girl and the city. The rock-and-roll mythos, blue-collar grit, pierogies — I was wonderstruck.
When You’re Embarrassed To Be A Michigander
Supposedly, “Michigander” is an offensive term, first coined by Abraham Lincoln as an insult. Lincoln thought Lewis Cass, the great Michigan governor for which so much of our institutions and municipalities are named...
Brite Winter Heads Back To The Flats
On February 21, 2015, bars across Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood were filled to capacity. Crowds huddled around fire pits.
Up In The Morning & Off To School In Detroit
On my first day of sophomore year in 1982, I transferred from St. Martin DePorres High, a very small, very focused, very caring Catholic high school, to Northern Senior High School, a very large, very chaotic, very cold public school.
Call for Submissions: The Chicago Anthology
Here at Belt we’re in the business of covering the Rust Belt. But what exactly does that mean when it comes to Chicago?
Cleveland Neighborhood Guidebook
Belt Publishing is excited to present the Cleveland Neighborhood Guidebook, coming in May 2016.
The Cleveland Income Tax Hike Explained (For Real This Time)
As part of their coverage of Mayor Frank Jackson’s proposed income tax hike in Cleveland, the Northeast Ohio Media Group ran a strange, divisive, and misleading story ...
Protecting The Architectural Legacy Of Columbus, Indiana
In 2014, an architecturally significant bank just outside Columbus, Indiana, met the wrecking ball. The sandstone and glass building was designed in 1966 by Fisher and Spillman Architects and was part of the city’s storied design legacy.