The District government begins a month of filling potholes slightly faster than usual.

Hitting it’s third year under it’s current name, Potholepalooza should be hitting its stride in filling up those irksome potholes-come-spring across the city. But according to The Examiner, work crews during this year’s -palooza, lasting from March 21 to April 21 for a total of 24 working days, managed to fill 5,201 tire-killers — a fall off from 6,084 and 7,690 in the program’s previous two years.

Obviously, former District Department of Transportation director Gabe Klein was doing something right — today, Transportation Nation is reporting that he has been chosen by new Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to run the Windy City’s Department of Transportation. Klein, who left the D.C. government in early December during a sea change in agency leadership after Mayor Vince Gray defeated Adrian Fenty for the city’s mayoralty, will reportedly start next month.

The Gabe Klein which many District residents have gotten to know since he took over the job of District Department of Transportation director 22 months ago was on full display this morning, despite the fact that he was about to announce that he’d soon be looking for a new job. Klein was in a jovial mood, smiling as he wondered whether or not he should wear his suit jacket and making jokes about being “the face of Snowmaggeddon.”

“We’re going to be talking about a big streetscape project,” he joked before the cameras started rolling.

We’ll have a full report from the press conference in which District Department of Transportation director Gabe Klein announced his departure from the position shortly, but it appears as if today has been a very painful one if you were appointed to a job by Mayor Adrian Fenty. Alan Suderman was able to confirm that Linda Argo, director of the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, will not return to her job when Gray takes…

As we noted this morning, the Committee of 100 on the Federal City fired off a letter to Mayor-elect Vince Gray earlier this week asking that he sack Department of Transportation director Gabe Klein and Office of Planning director Harriet Tregoning. The committee, which is made up of 153 people who advocate for planning and development based on the “values inherited from the L’Enfant Plan and McMillan Commission,” argued that Tregoning and Klein ruled their roosts much like their boss, Mayor Adrian Fenty, had — without any concern for public input.

Remember those garish streetscape plans for 14th Street NW, the ones that residents were not particularly impressed with — and which one DCist commenter dubbed “hideous tacky crap” — when they were unveiled at the end of September? Well, turns out that District Department of Transportation Director Gabe Klein isn’t really thrilled about the plans for one of the project’s main focus points either. According to a report in Greater Greater Washington, Klein has asked…

Photo by slack13.Someone get Ryan Avent on the phone! The District could be in the market for a “parking czar,” according to an online chat held last Friday with DDOT Director Gabe Klein. Klein wants to install someone who would oversee and manage all the improvements being made to parking regulations in the District. A sound idea, considering that parking ideas in this town, while mostly well-intentioned, are fairly poorly implemented. Speaking of such innovations,…

Considering how many local blogs obsessively cover the District Department of Transportation, it only makes sense that the city’s transpo officials get into the game themselves. In social media, as it is on The Wire, it’s play or get played. Thus comes the launch of d.ish, certainly the cutest government blog name we’ve ever seen. DDOT director Gabe Klein got the ball rolling today with two posts, a general welcome, and then a more…

Photo by e.phelps Now that all of us have spent a month slipping and falling and busting our asses all over this city, the D.C. Council is considering fining people and companies who do not clear their sidewalks. Yes, now: Now that March and the attendant arrival of spring appear before us like the light at the end of a long frozen tunnel, our ever-loving Council has decided to take action that would have saved…