Young people want more entertainment venues in Thousand Oaks
By Nancy Needham nancy@theacorn.com

Realizing they'll probably be grown up before it happens, Thousand Oaks teens still are letting the City Council know they'd like an ice skating rink, a bowling alley, a miniature-golf course and a stadium-style cinema center in the city.

Those are just a few of the requests made by the Youth Master Plan committee and presented at

a council meeting earlier this summer.

An arcade would also be nice, along with more ice cream parlors.

Some of the suggestions came out of a May 15 Youth Summit organized by the Youth Master Plan committee. The summit's purpose was to get local teens to express their views on how to make the city a better place for them.

The Youth Master Plan committee found that many of its 21 proposals can be implemented through a planned website that can be accessed either independently or from the city's website. Much of the work on the site has been done, but a final upload is being awaited and a few technical issues must still be solved.

When it's up and running, the site will provide teens across the city with a one-stop place to access a calendar of teen events, school information, social services, homework help, college information and other items that directly affect their age group. Plans are in place to compile a list of internship and volunteer opportu

nities to keep teens busy and provide material for their college applications. Jobs available to them will also be listed.

Help for parents with teens will also be available on the website. They'll be able to find information on and resources for eating disorders, substance abuse and driving safety.

Local newspaper editors, approached by teen committee members seeking how to submit stories about upcoming events, encouraged students to promote events for publication. Instruction on the process was to be shared with other students.