San Jose Mayor chuck Reed isn't giving up on Tesla Motors. Speaking to an audience at the "State of the Clean Green Industry" held by the SD Forum at Sun's headquarters, Reed said that he is working with Tesla to put some operations within the city limits. In fact, he was touring real estate sites with Tesla execs. Tesla might put in R&D or powertrain assembly in the city. But what could be called a complete assembly facility? Probably not. "One site on Zanker road? That is probably not feasible." Last year, Tesla announced plans to build a massive facility here with the blessing and support of the city and state. Since then, however, the economy has gone south and CEOs from a wide variety of industries are spending an inordinate time scrambling for cash in Washington. Tesla is trying to get some of that too. It's amazing how times change. Just two years ago, Tesla was playing California off New Mexico and those two off Michigan when it was trying to figure out where to put an assembly plant.