Lee Chilcote

Lee Chilcote is an award-winning writer and author whose work has been published in The Washington Post, The Associated Press, Vanity Fair, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Cleveland Magazine and many others. His poetry chapbooks are The Shape of Home and How to Live in Ruins. He is a founder and past executive director of Literary Cleveland and The Land. He lives in the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood of Cleveland with his family.

Former horse blanket factory transformed into affordable housing in Clark-Fulton neighborhood

By Lee Chilcote ● Development ● April 28, 2026

What was once the nation’s largest maker of woolen horse blankets is now 60 affordable housing units and a hub for social services on Cleveland’s West Side.

Clevelanders push back against planned RTA cuts, call for levy

By Lee Chilcote ● Transportation ● April 16, 2026

Although the transit cuts may seem like a fait accompli given RTA’s tenuous budget situation – projections show a $48.3 million budget gap in 2028, and the agency is not ruling out further cuts – public transit advocates in Cleveland are not going down without a fight.

Cleveland bakery plans major expansion in Cudell neighborhood

By Lee Chilcote ● Communities ● December 4, 2025

The plan is to build a 10,000-square-foot production facility that will allow them to dramatically expand capacity.

Cleveland jazz fans polarized by WCSB switch to JazzNEO

By Lee Chilcote ● Arts & Culture ● November 11, 2025

Recently, The Land spoke with a broad mix of jazz fans, musicians and promoters, who expressed deeply mixed feelings about the switchover of WCSB (now known as XCSB) to JazzNEO.

New townhomes in West Boulevard neighborhood promise ‘marquee entrance’ to Cleveland’s near west side, but concerns remain

By Lee Chilcote ● Communities ● October 20, 2025

“We want to build something that’s attainable for people who want to be 1,000 feet from the entrance to Edgewater Park.”

Morgan Conservatory set to expand in Midtown

By Lee Chilcote ● Arts & Culture ● October 3, 2025

“There are really only a handful of places like it in the country, let alone the world. To have an arts center of this size and as well equipped as it is, focused on hand papermaking, printmaking and book arts, it’s a very rare find.”

Memphis-Pearl project receives key approval, set to demolish buildings in preparation for groundbreaking

By Lee Chilcote ● Development ● January 7, 2025

The new Memphis-Pearl mid-rise project near the intersection of Memphis Road and Pearl Avenue would add a six-story, 74-unit apartment building to a neighborhood that hasn’t seen new residential construction like this in decades.

“Our little corner of Cleveland”: Spotlight Cleveland shines a light on local music scene

By Lee Chilcote ● Arts & Culture ● December 5, 2024

In the past year, two music lovers on Cleveland’s west side, Corrine Henahan and John Dewey, have transformed what used to be a smoke-filled, run-down corner bar at Madison Ave. and W. 87th St. into a loving tribute to the local music scene. The project is a direct result of their own grit and determination.

Two new businesses open in Cudell and Edgewater neighborhoods

By Lee Chilcote ● Development ● November 26, 2024

A pair of new businesses, Edgewater Sub Shop and Dahlia Coffee Company, recently opened in Cleveland’s Cudell and Edgewater neighborhoods, bringing new energy and life to what were previously culinary dead zones.

Community journalists, friends of The Land gather in Collinwood

By Lee Chilcote ● Community Journalism ● September 14, 2023

The Land’s free community journalism program has graduated more than 50 students, and a new cohort of students will begin Oct. 2.

Lee Chilcote

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