The State Trees of the Rust Belt
Illustration of state trees of Rust Belt states by David Wilson
Lay Down Your Weapons, Pick Up Your Tools: Trading Guns for Blowtorches in Pittsburgh
The one thing gun rights advocates and public health experts agree on is that offering money in exchange for weapons doesn’t reduce crime.
Weekly Links Roundup
News of the Rust Belt from around the world, brought to you weekly by the staff of Belt.
Redevelopment by Numbers in York, PA
Fueling vibrancy in a postindustrial city is a daunting task. Economic redevelopment, no matter how you slice it, can be exorbitantly expensive, snail-paced, and risky. Like many of its industry-starved brethren across the Rust Belt ...
Walking and Thinking: Technology and the New Navigation of Everyday Space
You know how when you read two books at the same time, they often kind of meld together in your head, like in that novel where Gatsby takes the raft down the Mississippi?
Hardboiled Coffee: Why Neighborhoods Need Mom & Pop Shops
Hardboiled Coffee Co. opened on a cold February day in 2013. I stopped by a few days before and found the doors locked and no one inside. I was so eager for a real coffee shop in Beverly, I didn't check to make sure of the grand-opening date.
Readers’ Corner: Tell Us About Your Favorite Rust Belt Place
My favorite corner in Cleveland is the intersection of Literary and Professor streets. I like it because, well, I am a literary professor. And because the street names trace an otherwise lost history.
Weekly Links Roundup
News of the Rust Belt from around the world, brought to you weekly by the staff of Belt. Secondhand Stories [...]
Scenes from the Cleveland International Film Festival
Between March 18 and 29, over 100,000 people attended the 39th Cleveland International Film Festival. For this photo essay, we hung out outside the theaters and related venues, watched the filmgoers, directors, queuers and workers come and go.
Going Off To College? Will It Still Be There?
Financially, a college is considered to have perpetual life. Auditors evaluate it as a going concern, trustees are not allowed to spend the amount originally contributed to the endowment, and money managers assume an infinite time ...
Ballad of a Pencil Junkie
In the old days at The New Yorker, when your pencil point got dull, you just tossed it aside and picked up a new one. There was an office boy who came around in the morning with a tray of freshly sharpened wooden pencils.
Rust Belt Refugees – April 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. The Rust Belt Refugees series is here: https://beltmag.com/tag/refugees/