http://www.autonews.com/article/20090427/ANA02/904279953/1176

GM to seek another shared Toyota model to replace Vibe

Lindsay Chappell
Automotive News
April 27, 2009 – 4:03 pm ET

Even as it shrinks its North American product portfolio, General Motors is negotiating with Toyota Motor Corp. to determine a new GM product to be jointly produced at the automakers’ 50-50 joint venture, New United Motor Manufacturing Inc.   A GM spokesman said that, if successful, the negotiations would result in a new model for one of GM’s surviving brands — Chevrolet, Buick, GMC or Cadillac. Earlier today, GM revealed that it will end production of its Pontiac line, including the Vibe crossover. The Vibe is currently GM’s sole yield from the NUMMI partnership — meaning the Pontiac decision effectively leaves GM without a need for NUMMI as it cuts factory production plans around the country. But Pontiac spokesman Jim Hopson said GM is in talks with Toyota and NUMMI itself to determine another vehicle to be produced there. “We’re negotiating to see how best to utilize that facility going forward,” Hopson said. “We’re clearly not backing away from our partnership at NUMMI. There’s no issue of us backing away from NUMMI.” Read the rest of this entry »

About 20 Fremont employees are slated to lose their jobs shortly. None of them are sworn police officers or firefighters. The city still hasn’t released a list of positions scheduled for elimination

This is NUMMI’s statement in response to today’s news that GM will eliminate the Pontiac brand by the end of 2010.

“GM continues to express strong commitment to NUMMI and the production of a joint-venture vehicle with Toyota at this plant. We are in the process of discussing alternative options with GM regarding the elimination of the Pontiac brand.”

The Vibe accounted for 70,843 out of 342,012 cars produced at NUMMI last year. Scroll way down for some stats provided by NUMMI:

What that means for NUMMI, I don’t know. It also makes the Toyota Corolla and Tacoma.

http://jalopnik.com/5229396/pontiac-vibe-solstice-are-dead-wont-live-on-as-chevys

I’m reading The Fremont Bulletin’s Best of Fremont 2009 edition from a couple of weeks ago. We used to do something similar. It was a great way to butter up folks and generate ads. But really, who needs ads?

While the old Argus Best of the Tri-Cities edition included reporter contributions (Anyone remember where was the Best Place to Avoid Councilmember Anu Natarajan in 2006?) the Bulletin just does a reader poll.

Some of these are spot on. Others show just how much folks around here love the big chains.

Take the first category: Best Bakery. The winner was Vienna Bakery & Cafe. That’s great, but how did an honorable mention go to Costco.

For Best Coffee, Mission Coffee was the winner, which is reasonable. But somehow Bay Street and Suju’s didn’t even get an honorable mention, while Starbucks did.

Best Desserts in a Restaurant: PF Chang’s China Bistro. How does a city with so many Chinese people even have this place? You wouldn’t find a Pizza Hut or Olive Garden in Bensonhurst.

Best Burrito: Chipotle   –  You shouldn’t be allowed to live in California if you think Chipotle has the best burrito. Sell me your house for $100,000 and move to Manitoba.

Best Bar: The Elephant Bar — Something tells me they don’t have shuffleboard. Mojo’s does, but it only got an honorable mention.

Best Pharmacy: Kaiser Medical Center  — This beat out Hallers, Fremont’s only independent pharmacy.

Best Doctor: Dr. Gorsulowsky  –  Two problems with this choice. One, they didn’t give his first name. Two, he’s a dermatologist. Shouldn’t the best doctor in town do something more important than unclog pores and lance warts?

There were a lot of legit winners: Dale Hardware, Regan’s Nursery, Lloyd’s Doughnut Kitchen, Salang Pass, Shalimar, Bob’s, and, of course, Country Way.

Still, McDonald’s won honorable mention for best kids’ restaurant. Not good.

BTW: The best place to avoid Anu Natarajan in 2006 was the Washington Township Men’s Club.

So charming of them to send out this email late on a Friday.

budget-update

As Fremont considers turning the Center Theater into a theater that serves food and drink, it can’t like the news from up north. First the Parkway Speakeasy theater closed, and now operators of the new one in El Cerrito (which was refurbished with public money) want a break on their rent.

Still hoping to get an account set up for Laquinna Johnson by the end of today. Fire Dept says someone broke in through her back door and started a fire near the sofa. Some type of excellerant(sp?) was used.

I was out of commission for a couple of days. While I was gone, the Henkel Building in Niles was demolished and city folks tried to figure out how to get the Passenger Depot over some soft terrain.

Other things: Fremont is about to start offering fingerprints to the public. I guess that can be used to help protect kids, but I’m not really sure why people would want to get them. It’ll cost $21 — just $1 more than Hayward charges. City will make a very tiny profit, if all goes according to plan.

The city is poised to award a $3.8 million contract to build the new Fire Dept. Tactical Training Center on Stevenson, west of I-880. The whole think will cost almost $7 million. The money comes from the fire bond you folks passed several years ago.

Patterson Ranch EIR isn’t ready yet.  The EIR is over-budget, and the council will have  to amend an agreement to allow for another $125,000 to finish it.

When the council rushed ahead with a tough new law for nightclubs recently, it scared lots of entertainment venue owners by prohibiting amplified music that could be heard beyond the property line after 10 p.m. That is now getting amended to be less stringent.

Also, I’ve made a few boo-boos in the past couple of weeks, but none was more embarrassing than writing that Sabercat Creek was named for the the saber-tooth tiger. Turns out it was named for the sabercat, a nearly-extinct Arena Football League team, whose offspring  strangely resemble human females that use too much makeup.

I finished my work too late to hear a presentation about the prospects of building a performing arts center or doing something with the Center Theater. One idea for the Center would be to operate it as a theater that shows second run movies and serves food and drinks.

A performing arts center would cost anywhere from $20 to $80 million to build. According to a city report Fremont residents are nearly twice as likely to buy classical music as the average American. Fremonters are also much more likely to go to live theater, and pop concerts.

I’m not a Fremont resident, but I stopped by karaoke night at the Huddle on Mowry late last night. Almost as much talent there as there was free popcorn. My buddy and I were going to go on stage, but couldn’t decide between Islands in the Stream or something by Wham. Now, I’m suddenly feverish.

I wrote a sad story for tomorrow’s paper. It’s about a woman whose home burned down. But there was no picture of the woman or the house. Blame my crummy camera work. Here are the pictures that were too amateur for The Argus: Below is Laquinna and what used to be her couch. Click here for the story.