Fenty Names Four New Agency Heads

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty today named a bunch of new executive honchos to new jobs. He's tapped Gabe Klein to head up DDOT; Lee A. Smith III to take over the Department of Small and Local Business Development; Bridget Davis to take over his policy and lobbying shop; and Tracy Sandler to replace Davis at the Office of Boards and Commissions.

The most attention-grabbing choice is his pick to lead the Department of Transportation. Probably more eyes were/will be on this pick than any of the others because of the ongoing campaigning by planning geeks/urbanists to put someone in charge who's at the cutting edge of urban transit trends. In a perfect world---barring somehow convincing current NYC transpo commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan to slum it in the District---they'd like to see a clone of Sadik-Khan, someone with a proven record of advocating for multimodal transit options, not just finding the most efficient ways to move cars through the city.

Is Klein that? Doesn't look like it. [UPDATE, 2 P.M.: LL may have spoken too soon; a "gabe klein" signed David Alpert's form letter asking for a "visionary" DDOT leader, adding these personal comments: "I agree, love Michelle Rhee, Harriet Tregoning, and of course Dan Tangherlini. Lets bring someone of that caliber in to take over DDOT, a hugely important position in Washington. For instance, without Dan Tangherlini's vision, carsharing would not be what it is in Washington (one of the top carsharing cities in the U.S.)"]

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