Next month, political, business and community leaders will join with academics in exploring the state of California's infrastructure--including its physical, political, social, economic and environmental systems--in an effort to align the state's existing and emerging needs with its capacity to meet those needs.

The 17th annual Envisioning California Conference, "Retrofitting California: Rethinking Policy and Infrastructure for a Sustainable Future," will take place Sept. 22 and 23 at the Warner Center Marriott in Woodland Hills. The conference is being sponsored by CSUN's Center for Southern California Studies and the Center for California Studies at California State University, Sacramento.

"We hope the conference helps focus the options we face regarding population sustainability and infrastructure improvement," said Matthew Cahn, director of CSUN's Center for Southern California Studies. "Experts from throughout the state will have an opportunity to weigh in on existing problems, while helping to provide a pathway for meeting these challenges over the next 20 years."

Keynote speakers include Los Angeles Times columnist Patt Morrison and former presidential candidate and Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis. In addition, the California Legacy Project will present a spoken-word presentation on the California landscape.

Panel topics include "The Changing Political Infrastructure: From Representation to Plebiscitary Democracy," "California's Economy in Transition: Energy, Technology, and Infrastructure," "California Environmental Infrastructure: Water, Air Quality, Coastal Resources," "Revisiting Neighborhood Infrastructure: Grassroots and Nonprofits in the Community," "From Adobes to New Urbanism: California's Land Use in Perspective," "Health Services in California: From Crisis to Opportunity," "GIS and Public Policy: Mapping Solutions to California's Problems" and "Environmental Justice in California: Examining Ethnicity, Economics and Environmental Toxicity."

"Fostering informed public discussion is what the university is all about," Cahn said. "We see the Envisioning California--now in its 17th year--as one of our best tools for accomplishing this."

For more information about the conference, call CSUN's Center for Southern California Studies at (818) 677-6518, e-mail cscs@csun.edu or visit the center's Web site at www.csun.edu/~cscs/..