The Gotham Gal and I have gotten excited about The Highline that is getting turned into a park in New York City. We've given money and are trying to help them raise more. I've posted about the Highline on this blog in the past. One of the inspirations for The Highline is an elevated viaduct in Paris that has been turned into a park called The Promenade Plantee. It's in the 12th arrondissement and I've been meaning to go visit it while we are here in Paris.

Yesterday, Josh and I biked (velib baby!) over there and back and walked the Promenade. I've walked the HIghline in NYC a number of times and the two parks are not going to be that simlar. The Promenade Plantee is very much a garden and at times you don't even see the streets around it. The Highline is being designed to take advantage of the cityscape around it and will have much less plantings and more views.

Regardless of similarities and/or differences, I am a huge fan of reusing our urban landscapes and am a big fan of this movement to create parkland out of elevated structures.

Here's a 30 second Animoto video I created from the photos I took on my blackberry. I think it does a good job of giving you a sense of the place.

While I was in Berlin, Lukasz filmed a short interview in the cab headed to our last meeting. By this time, I had seen 32 startups in less than 32 hours and I was pretty exhausted. But I think I was at least partially coherent. And here's Lukasz' blog post if you read german.

Link: sevenload.com

• DFJ Gotham Ventures Promotes Thatcher Bell To Principal, Hires Mark Davis As Associate

• Biking Around Berlin With Lukasz

Wrote about this earlier in the week after seeing it on a number of news programs. As is usually the case, it seemed a little too clever and smelled kinda funny…

The BBB says its concerned about gasoline-hedging company MyGallons.com and its ability to live up to the advertising claims on its website. A spokesperson for the BBB tells us that the biggest “red flag” they’ve discovered is that MyGallons claimed (in their press release) to have partnered with US Bank. However, when the BBB called US Bank to confirm this, they found out that it wasn’t true. US Bank had discussed the opportunity with MyGallons, but had declined. According to the BBB, despite the fact that they have no contractual agreements in place to process transactions, MyGallons is still signing up new customers.

[From Mygallons: BBB Says MyGallons.com “Omitted Fact” In Advertising, Has No Contract To Process Transactions]

Seattle-based Avvo, which runs a website to help people find and rate lawyers, announced it has expanded its service to Connecticut, New Jersey, and Maryland. Avvo’s attorney profiles are now available in 18 states, including Massachusetts, New York, and Oregon, as well as Washington DC. That covers 80 percent of the practicing attorneys in the U.S., according to Avvo CEO Mark Britton, formerly top lawyer at Bellevue, WA-based Expedia.

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