News coming out of OC’s auto industry is in overdrive these days.
Moving forward: Talk is intensifying that Amazon and Ford-backed electric vehicle maker Rivian will move its headquarters from Michigan to Irvine, see page 48 for more. And Amazon itself is looking to take over much of the Cypress campus left behind at the end of 2019 by Mitsubishi Motors North America Inc.; see our front-page story for more details.
In reverse: auto-focused media site Jalopnik last week cited internal sources at Irvine’s Karma Automotive that the luxury carmaker will soon be seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company hasn’t responded to the report and has refuted other facts from the online media site. Its predecessor company, Fisker Automotive, went bankrupt in 2013.
Stuck in neutral: On July 1, Michael Cole, who took over as Kia Motors America Inc. president just last November, will move to a new role—CEO of Hyundai Motor’s European business. A replacement for the Irvine post at Kia hasn’t been named.
Irvine Co.’s #FreshAirOC marketing push aims to reassure returning shoppers of the benefits of having open-air retail centers like the Spectrum Center and Fashion Island, see page 14 for more on how it and South Coast Plaza are welcoming back patrons. Both, based on firsthand observations, are again seeing a good amount of foot traffic.
The benefits of the open-air retail concept aren’t lost on Laguna Beach councilman and local art gallery owner Peter Blake, who helped with the temporary closure of Forest Avenue, the main drag for restaurants in the city’s downtown, to cars for 75 days.
In place of auto traffic: an extended outdoor dining area for the avenue’s batch of now-open restaurants and eateries. A stroll through the European-styled area a week ago saw a lively dining scene, with new artwork along the street, one-way pedestrian walkways to promote social distancing, and a stepped-up security presence.
The initiative, approved by city council in a 4-1 vote, will cost some $300,000 over the course of the efforts, which run until mid-September. Blake hopes it can become a permanent addition and perhaps an impetus for other pro-business measures in Laguna Beach in the future.
All it took “was an act of God, and a pandemic,” he quipped.
Chapman President Emeritus Jim Doti provided his summer media diet of books and movies to readers in last week’s Leader Board. Among the recommendations was a recent memoir by Woody Allen, a selection he noted was “controversial” given the allegations of molestation against the director.
Rebecca Gonzalez, principal consultant with Newport Beach’s Orange Marketing, recommends a different book in light of the #MeToo movement: 2019’s “Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators,” written by Ronan Farrow, the son of Mia Farrow and Allen.
In Farrow’s book, “after interviewing dozens of [Harvey] Weinstein’s victims, Farrow expresses sincere regret that during the allegations of child sexual abuse by Allen of his sister Dylan, that Farrow wished Dylan would stop bringing it up and would ‘move on,’” Gonzalez says.
