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If it seems like the DDOT director’s account on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter has gotten extra spicy recently, there’s a good reason: It’s an impostor.

As entertaining as it might be to think of newly anointed Acting Director Sharon Kershbaum posting AI-generated renderings of a double-decker highway over Connecticut Avenue NW, an anonymous trickster has actually been running @DDOTDCDirector for the past six months or so. The account is far from the most popular in D.C.’s corner of the internet, at just over 600 followers, but it’s clearly getting some notice. Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White started commenting on its posts back in December, apparently believing that it was indeed the head of one of his least favorite city agencies; and DDOT itself used its main account to condemn the troll account shortly after it started posting in October. @DDOTDCDirector has only grown in popularity among the city’s urbanist set since then. Fake press releases poking fun at Mayor Muriel Bowser’s recent retreat from some traffic safety measures have garnered plenty of attention. 

So Loose Lips sought to find out how, exactly, an interloper managed to disrupt the administration’s otherwise carefully curated social media presence. Turns out this state of affairs is as much a result of sloppiness at DDOT as it is the very silly policies instituted at X under new overlord Elon Musk.

The person running the account, who insisted on anonymity to discuss their online mischief-making, tells LL that they never thought they could get away with this for so long. They followed the account back when then-DDOT Director Everett Lott still ran it. But Lott deactivated the account when he was pushed out the door last fall, and this trickster logged on to see if anyone else at DDOT claimed the handle in his absence.

Lo and behold, @DDOTDCDirector was still up for grabs, so they quickly began posting as if they were actually running the agency, poking fun at Bowser’s administration all along the way. This led to the agency itself blasting out a statement disparaging the account to its roughly 49,000 followers, which only served to fan the flames.

For a closer look at this bit of social media silliness, and what it says about Bowser’s recent pivot on traffic safety, check out our full story online.

—Alex Koma (tips? akoma@washingtoncitypaper.com)

• Two teenage boys, one 14 and the other 16, were arrested in connection with the shooting at Schrom Hills Park in Greenbelt during a “senior skip day” earlier this month. Five teenagers were injured during the shooting; all five have been released from the hospital. [Post, WJLA]
• The encampment on George Washington University’s campus protesting the war in Gaza is entering its sixth day. About 100 tents are still in place on University Yard and H Street NW. [GW Hatchet]
• A man reportedly jumped onto the Metro tracks at McPherson Square Monday and then onto the back of a Silver Line train. It’s illegal to ride on the outside of Metro trains, and transit police are still searching for the suspect. A teenage girl was killed last month when she tried to “train surf” on a Red Line train near Silver Spring. [NBC Washington]

By City Paper Staff (tips? editor@washingtoncitypaper.com)

• Attorney General Brian Schwalb secured a $100,000 fine against a trash transfer company in Ward 5, arguing Rodgers Brothers Custodial Services repeatedly illegally dumped pollutants into stormwater basins. Neighbors and city officials have been pressuring the company over similar issues for decades. [Informer]
• Meanwhile, tenants at a ritzy CityCenter apartment complex have been trying to pull Schwalb into a very different kind of dispute: They claim the building’s owners are improperly ditching their doormen in favor of automated Amazon lockers. The landlord, Hines, appears to be backing off for now. [Axios]
• Metro has finally hired a new inspector general after unceremoniously firing its previous independent auditor in the wake of a critical report of the transit agency. Congressional overseers are warning Metro not to repeat that sort of behavior with the new IG, Michelle Zamarin. [WJLA]

By Alex Koma (tips? akoma@washingtoncitypaper.com)