The Belt

One block from Parker’s Alley and a whole different mood: The Belt is downtown’s art alley, a former garment-district service lane running between Library Street and Broadway, connecting Gratiot to Grand River, that Library Street Collective has turned into a genuinely stunning open-air gallery. We wandered it with cameras out and jaws slightly open — murals and installations from more than a dozen artists, including a Shepard Fairey, stacked along both walls, a window peering into the Collective’s gallery itself, and even the adjoining Z garage in on the act. By day it’s a photographer’s playground; after dark it flips into one of downtown’s liveliest little nightlife strips — The Skip pouring frozen drinks mid-lane, a hidden cocktail den off the Gratiot end, and a blacklight basement behind an unmarked door.

The art rotates, the block parties are annual, and the whole thing costs nothing to walk — which makes it one of the easiest wins in downtown Detroit. Come for the murals, stay for a drink, and thank whoever decided an alley deserved this much love.