In the late 1800s, East Cleveland took root as a small trading post alongside a wagon trail that led from Buffalo, New York, to Cleveland, Ohio. This wagon trail, then known as the "Lakeshore Trail" forged by American Indians long gone, later became Euclid Avenue--"the showplace of America." In 1911, East Cleveland planted its municipal roots seven miles east of downtown Cleveland. New gas and waterlines, streetcars, and women's municipal suffrage greatly increased economic growth. With help from investor John D. Rockefeller, businesses such as the National Bindery Company, the Nickel Plate Railroad, and General Electric's Nela Park thrived in the city's favorable economic climate. East Cleveland's racial demographics diversified after several wars abroad, and the city later faced "white flight" during the 1950s and 1960s. Although fiscal emergencies shook the city's foundation throughout the 1970s to 1990s, East Cleveland has experienced a recent upsurge of urban renewal. Once home to "Millionaires' Row," it is now the perfect climate for urban farming, sustainable business practices, community education, and innovative civic engagement.

Democratizing Cleveland: The Rise and Fall of Community Organizing in Cleveland, Ohio, 1975-1985 is the result of almost fifteen years of research on a topic that has been missing from local works on Cleveland history: the community organizing movement that put neighborhood concerns and neighborhood voices front and center in the setting of public policies in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Originally published in 2007 by Arambala Press, this important work is being reprinted by Belt Publishing for a new generation of activists, planners, urbanists, and organizers.

This book examines the role Protestants played in the formation of the public culture of antebellum Cleveland, a developing commercial city typical of many cities throughout the Midwest. The author analyzes the extent to which, and the way in which, Protestants were able to exercise power in the city, concluding that they achieved a measure of success during the years 1836 to 1860, after which their power began to erode. As a framework for this analysis, he develops a methodology for measuring the success, or influence, of religion in a particular society. By focusing on the public culture, this book encompasses both the formal and informal uses of power and the public, quasi-public, and private activities of Protestants. This allows for a discussion of a broader spectrum of culture-shaping activity than is usually included in studies of religion and society, including an examination of contests within the Protestant community over identity and commitments and attitudes toward economic development, benevolent work, temperance agitation, antislavery campaigns, participation in civic rituals, and the social bases of Protestant influence.