CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Joel Kotkin

As Thousand Oaks celebrates its first 50 years, city officials will host a speaker Wednesday night to help the public envision the next 50.

Joel Kotkin, a futurist and author of the book The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050, will discuss the future of Southern California and what Thousand Oaks could be like in 2064.

Kotkins free lecture, which is open to the public, kicks off the Thousand Oaks 2064 visioning program. A series of community discussions will start April 2 and continue through October.

The five focus areas are environment, infrastructure, economy, municipal services, and civic and community. A City Council member will spearhead each topic.

Kotkin is the Roger Hobbs Distinguished Fellow in Urban Studies at Chapman University in Orange. He also is the executive editor of Newgeography.com and a weekly columnist for Forbes.com.

Kotkins lecture will be at 7 p.m. in the Scherr Forum Theatre at the Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd. Seating is limited to the first 400 people. Early arrival is encouraged.

The talk will be broadcast on TOTV and streamed live on the citys website, http://www.toaks.org.

Read this article:

Futurist kicking off Thousand Oaks' plans for the next 50 years