The bond attorney turned civic activist did have success in his push to clean up Lake Washington, though. In addition, King County’s government needed streamlining.Įllis had already tried to interest voters in more efficient government through a charter revision for the county in 1952, and again in 1958, but with no luck. Even as they made mild attempts at reform, Mayor Dorm Braman and the Seattle City Council acted like risk-averse investors when faced with any significant expenditures. In Seattle a weak-mayor–strong-council city government had sapped municipal initiative for years. Ellis fretted that the region was doing little to prepare for growth. The most optimistic economists thought the state could gain 60,000 jobs every year, most of them along the newly completed segment of Interstate 5 running between Tacoma and Everett through Seattle. By 1965 forecasters were predicting that King County’s population might double to two million in 20 years.
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The successful 1962 Seattle world’s fair had given the city a jolt of energy and greater confidence. It was the mid-1960s, and Seattle was poised for growth. The Forward Thrust Collections (accession number 1707) at UW Special Collections is another source of primary documents, especially meeting minutes and correspondence of James Ellis and other movement leaders.
![another word for forward thrust another word for forward thrust](https://img.youtube.com/vi/r_-wGP9sBJA/hqdefault.jpg)
For readers who are interested in more information about Forward Thrust, the author directs them to the three-volume publication “A Report to the Residents of King County Washington on Progress of Forward Thrust Projects” available at University of Washington Libraries. The version below includes photos and links that did not appear in the printed copy. Note: The following article appeared in the Spring 2014 issue of Pacific Northwest Quarterly. The Persistence of Progressivism James Ellis and the Forward Thrust Campaign