Here’s a recent Toby Radloff video to help you get by:

We’re just practicing what we preached back June: collaboration & cooperation instead of competition, and a focus on cyberspace over meatspace.

This afternoon, I’ll be stopping by the Ohio City Bike Coop to interview Jim Sheehan. I took their bike repair course this spring and learned a trike-load of great maintenance skills. I’ll be talking to Jim about cycling in Cleveland, how to Coop is doing during this recession summer, and the usual Blackheart Cleveland stuff.

You can write about whatever topic strikes your fancy, as long as it is Cleveland-related, not self-promotional and informative. If you’re interested, use the contact form to send BHC a message and we’ll talk.

• If you’re on Facebook, BHC is on Facebook (and we’re in an open relationship).
• If you’re a twit, follow our tweets. (If you run across something that means BLACKHEART Cleveland to you, let us know at the hash #BHC)
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel (but please only comment if you’re capable of typing a coherent thought.)

By the way, the Tips section isn’t for donations. If you’ve got a news tip, a request for coverage, a rant or rave about a Cleveland noun, a comment or suggestion for what you’d like to see us cover around here, let us know.

Some upcoming and ongoing categories include:

• News Done Right - Taking a poorly crafted piece of reporting by our local media and treating the story with the respect it (and you) deserve.
• Sports - Cleveland is a sports town, even if Toledo chose the better name for their hockey team.
• Music - Coverage and video of local bands.
• Politics - Where to begin…
• Business - Recognizing local businesses and finding out why they chose to invest in Cleveland.

Cleveland has a black heart. The Cuyahoga is its aorta and the industrial valley forms the atria and ventricles. If you wonder why Clevelanders have a reputation for fatalism, you need look no further.

This malaise has persisted for generations, and manifests in several symptoms. Many of the powerful, who claim to serve this city and county and work for its betterment are merely interested in serving themselves and their cohorts. The results of this neglect are most visible in the increasing decrepitude of the city’s business, population, infrastructure and housing.

Most of the powerless bewail the status quo and scoff at any hope for change. This abject pessimism provides perfect security that change will not come. The powerful and powerless are both supported by a dying media system whose sole purpose has dwindled to simply telling people what they want to hear, so much pre-chewed, well-spun, spoon-fed pablum.

And there are those who “wring their hands about ‘civic participation’ while not actually doing anything about it themselves [QFT].” These are people whose own agendas are so important that they cannot and will not put them aside to work with each other. And so Cleveland also has a broken heart.

Face it. The physical, spiritual and emotional needs of this city we call home are not being met.

BLACKHEART Cleveland is the light in the darkness. If you want to know about the hidden gems, the intrepid entrepreneurs, and the beauty of Cleveland, this is the place to be.

If you want to know about hidden drama or details about news where the news has failed you, this is the place to be.

If you want to know what’s cooking in the Clevelandsphere, want more local music, want more local arts coverage, want more local community building information, this is the place to be.

If you want some Cleveland nostalgia, some Cleveland humor and some Cleveland straight-talk, this is the place to be.

If you want to know who is being stupid about Cleveland on the internet, this is definitely the place to be.

BLACKHEART Clevelanders love Cleveland. We respect and respond to what it was, what it is, and what it can be. If you don’t, we’ll change your mind. That’s why we’re here. And that’s why we’re already the best blog in Cleveland.