Episode Details

Part 1 of The Ghostly Green Line: The Seattle Monorail Chronicles dives into the "ghostly green line"—the proposed Seattle Monorail that promised a transformative transit future between 1997 and 2005. Guest Cindi Laws, a veteran political operative, provides an insider’s look at the campaigns that defined that era. Laws reveals the "death by a thousand cuts" strategy employed by well-funded opponents, the deep-seated political rivalries between City of Seattle and King County leadership, and the unethical management practices that ultimately crippled the Monorail agency. The discussion moves beyond the surface-level narrative to address why Seattle’s transit planning has faced such consistent, decades-long failures. Cindi also shares the joys of successful campaigns, and her

Cindi Laws, a Public Affairs Consultant and Lobbyist, has specialized in trade associations for small businesses and nonprofit organizations since the late 90s. Her professional political experience began in 1986 when she worked on former US Secretary of Transportation and former Congressman Brock Adams campaign to defeat incumbent US Senator Slade Gorton. She went on to serve Sen. Adams in the US Senate, where she worked on transportation, timber, Tribes, and Labor, and then as state outreach director for Senator Adams. Cindi also worked on 3 presidential campaigns: Dukakis/Bentsen 1988 (flipping WA Blue for the first time in 20 years), and smaller roles for Clinton/Gore in both 1992 and 1996. You can connect with Cindi through her LinkedIn and Facebook

"Let's celebrate the joy that we can do great things!!" 

-Cindi Laws

Part 2 will come out on September 22nd, and will include interviews with people who worked for and volunteered with the Monorail campaigns: Rodney Rutherford,

Brian Dougherty, and Michael Taylor-Judd.

Show Notes:

• Tickets for upcoming Invisible Histories events
• Seattle Monorail Project Wikipedia
• For the Monorail: A 1997 Op-Ed by Walt Crowley
• USCG final environmental impact statement for Seattle Monorail Project Green Line and contains Appendix LL. (Seattle Municipal Archives - Monorail documents)
• Seattle monorail project / final staff recommendation for alignment and stations and includes a small amount about the Lander station and other stations. (Seattle Municipal Archives - Monorail documents)
• The Monorail Society: Hall of Fame
• Peter Dibble: How Seattle rejected the Monorail (youtube)
• The Seattle Channel City Inside/Out: Monorail Measure
• Person of Interest: Dick Falkenbury (2016)
• Youtube cl