Lancaster city officials will host the first “Future of the City: Lancaster Like Never Before” (FOTC) event this Friday, March 18, from 7 to 10 p.m., at the Lancaster Performing Arts Center, located at 750 West Lancaster Boulevard.
Attendees will be guided through a series of short talks, demonstrations, and performances that cover a wide range of topics, according to organizers. Tickets to the in-person event are sold out, but the event will be livestreamed on the city of Lancaster’s YouTube and Facebook accounts, starting at 7 p.m.
“Lancaster has never held something like this before,” Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris said in a news release. “Future of the City will bring together the most influential figures in the city to share ideas that matter in any discipline. It will be a suite of short carefully prepared talks, demonstrations, and performances that are idea-focused. Our goal is that FOTC will become a forum for ideas within the community that inspires people to change their lives, their futures, and ultimately their world.”
Presenters will share ideas from their fields of expertise, including technology, entertainment, design, science, humanities, business and development, and how these ideas will shape and transform Lancaster’s future.
“In Lancaster, we are always looking toward the future and how we can continue making our city better – a mindset that is reflected in the event’s new name this year,” said Lancaster Vice Mayor Marvin Crist. “Our hope is that Future of the City will not only inform our residents about the exciting things happening right now but also give us a chance to dream and create a vision with our community about all that Lancaster will be in the years to come.”
To access the event via YouTube, visit: www.youtube.com/cityoflancaster1977. Facebook users can access the event at: www.facebook.com/cityoflancaster.
[Information via news release from the city of Lancaster.]
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Alby says
If the city officials continue to evolve around section 8 poverty pimps and crackhead transients, then the Future Of Lancaster will certainly be FOCT.
WeNeedAMayorWhoLivesHere says
What a joke it was. Almost three hours of avoiding the real issues like crime, jobs, roads and homelessness. It was all smoke and mirrors and a bunch of malarkey about ignoring the past and looking forward. Of course Wrecks wants everyone to forget about his past. He should be in jail or run out of office for what he has done to people and how he has mismanaged tax dollars. This was nothing but a feel good campaign rally for the good old boys. Wise up people of Lancaster. We are being hoodwinked again.
FWB says
“ignoring the past and looking forward”
Right out of the narcissus play book
WILLIAM75 says
THAT, my friends, is the Republican playbook. How many years has Wrecks spent on the blvd to nowhere and it’s worse than ever? Not very smart are they on Fern.
They can’t govern but they sure want power and for what? $$$$$$s apparently is the only reason they want to be in office. They want to legislate whatever makes them richer and only them.
They cut taxes on billionaires but fought raising the minimum wage and, of course, unions.
When I hear local Trumpers bellyache about gas prices, didn’t those Bush and Trump tax cuts set them up on easy street? After Bush’s tax cuts years ago, gas prices went up because there was more money in the economy and guess who gets first crack at the extra loot?
Those gas price signs in front of gas stations are designed to make changes easy especially the ^ changes. When oil prices drop, gas prices don’t come down very fast do they? That’s capitalism at work for Republicans. They get to bash Biden for the prices while embracing their oil stock earnings.
If a Rpublican gets elected president in 2024 look forward to a recession. They’ve had one every single time for the last 100 years. You can count on it. Mark it on your calendar. They aren’t good with the economy over the long haul.
Tax cuts are all they know but it just gives the economy a suger rush while the debt increases, and infrastructure deteriorates.
It’s a good thing Democratic presidents get elected to clean up the messes like Bush and Trump left behind.
Republican voters will never learn, never ever learn.
FWB says
I’m still waiting for this Democrat POTUS to clean up the mess.
It sure appears to me he’s making things worse. Oh but that’s Trump’s fault.
Tim Scott says
Let’s see…we are at very close to full employment, NATO is standing up to totalitarianism and acknowledging US leadership, the tempest in a teapot over supply chain failures unsurprisingly faded away, and, oh yeah, people aren’t dying by the thousands from a pandemic that the former president said would “just go away by itself.
But, sure…he’s “making things worse” in your fantasy bubble. Got it.
FWB says
I sell electronics and we’re still seeing delays due to parts not being available preventing manufactures from making product.
We got around the port of Long Beach problem by having everything air shipped. But they can’t ship what they can’t make.
Other business folks are telling me they are experiencing the same problems.
Your pandemic was a plandemic, my mind is made up about this.
Tim Scott says
The list of things that your mind is made up about never seems to end…or have any connection to reality.
FWB says
So I have no idea if ABC news leans left or right. But judging by these headlines I’d say their leaning right today
“Biden’s job approval falls to lowest level of his presidency amid war and inflation”
I’m not sure what fantasy bubble I’m in either
Swami Sam says
The future of Lancaster? It’s pretty simple. More crime, more homeless, a continued ignoring of the homeless, more inside deals for friends of Rex, more wasted millions on the Eye in the Sky, more lousy roads, more bikelanes, more roundabouts named for elected officials, more nutty statements from the mayor, more businesses closing on the BLVD.
FWB says
Corruption is standard operating procedure
Nothing new here…
Spaceman says
Earth to Demented Joe. Earth to Demented Joe. Lancaster’s mayor and city council are Republicans. Sure the state elected Democrats are a mess. But so are Lancaster’s Republicans.
Tim Scott says
Sponsored by the Sloan Valve company.
Tim Scott says
Very sad. This was hilarious, but apparently went over everyone’s head.
America's Most Missing the Joke says
Sloan Valves are used to flush toilets? That’s what I thought it meant, and I thought it was funny, but I might be missing the point. That happens to me quite a bit now-a-days.
Tim Scott says
YES!!!
Every man standing at a urinal anywhere in America (maybe the world?) is looking at the words “Sloan Valve Company.”
Iconoclast says
What a joke. Downtown is a mess again. Law firms have moved out. The Lemon Leaf is gone. There are empty stores everywhere. We have a mayor who lives elsewhere. Unlike other cities, our city council is not districted. Wonder why? Rex and cronies can win in an all -city election. Hey, something else, other cities gained population the last 10 years, Lancaster lost people. Wonder why?
Tim Scott says
It’s like Putin’s Russia…a brain drain as people escape the autocratic rule of the election fixing despot.
FWB says
Some of those lawyers hopefully retired. They were older than dirt.
tsparky says
The destruction of small business is directly related to the lock downs, especially restaurants. Hard to blame it on the City when the orders came from the State and County.
“Population has gone down in the last 10 years” Says who?
US Census:
Population, Census, April 1, 2020 173,516
Population, Census, April 1, 2010 156,633
The whole State of California has lost population in the last 2 years so it’s possible that the AV also lost since the census. Although with new housing tracks sprouting up for the first time since the 2009 recession, that’s going to change in the AV.
Tim Scott says
LOL…so all the restaurants on Lancaster Boulevard that went out of business in the years before the pandemic were just failing preemptively because the lockdown was coming?
FWB says
Amazon finished off brick and mortar retail business
William says
So it was Amazon that caused the closure of dozens of BLVD businesses? Amazon hasn’t closed the mall yet. For sure Amazon has hurt brick and mortar places but the BLVD has its own issues like panhandlers, poor parking, hard to get to, lack of synergy, etc.
Tim Scott says
You left out extortionist rents charged by property owners that are “in favor” with Wrecks.
FWB says
yeah those reasons to William..
I haven’t had a reason to go to Lancaster Blvd since they stopped allowing cruising.
BLVD Bob says
That’s exactly how Wrecks would spin in. “As Lancaster is a forward looking city, the businesses on the BLVD saw how Amazon would soon be putting them out of business. As a calculated measure to prevent job layoffs in the future, the BLVD businesses wisely closed before they would be put out of business.”
Sure Wrecks. Amazon is putting a lot of restaurants out of business. Dolt.
WILLIAM75 says
For decades we’ve been a “consumer economy” and proud of it.
Amazzon took advantage of that and delivered us lots of stuff, so we needn’t shop in stores or even go to restaurants with food delivered our homes.
But, Americans being the contrary folk they are, freaked out during the pandemic because they couldn’t go shopping and out to restaurants.
When the pandemic is but a memory, they’ll go back to “cocooning” and their “man caves” and ordering pizza delivered as before and watching movies on their big, flat screen television machines.
Have you noticed on the 14 here in the valley, they’re driving faster than ever because gas is expensive? Go figure.
Hot Air says
The BLVD has been a graveyard for businesses long before the lockdown. Lemmle, Brittney’s, Bex, Hot Rod Dogz, Barrones, Kinetic, Chicago Dogs, several coffee shops, Maribel’s, Vintage Styles Now, Eat Fresh, Bolts and Bathtubs, and a lot more.
This will surely be an act of bloviation and self congratulation never before seen in Lancaster since the last time Rex and the boys were giving a presentation. Instead of hearing about the spy cameras that we will have on all our streetlights, and how we are going to save the world by using garbage for fuel, can we please find out why we are still spending $90K a month on a spy plane that is now lowering crime? Or why we are using black road paint instead of fixing our roads? Or why we are being told to carry guns to shoot the homeless if they try to rob us instead of getting the homeless off the streets? Will they tell us why a 200 bed Kensington was better than a 700 bed shelter?
QH Holdover says
It’s election season so the Vice Mayor and others seeking re-election can blow smoke about how wonderful they are. Just another stand alone election cycle in Lancaster.