When city officials and Larry Ellison were originally touting the amazing and marvelous economic impacts that would come to S.F. from hosting the America's Cup, it seems that they, and their consultants, were a bit overly optimistic. A new study by the same firm that did the original economic impact projection three years ago has concluded that the upcoming America's Cup races will bring $780 million into the local economy, down from the earlier projected $1.4 billion.

The events happen this year, between July and October, and construction for the various race-related arenas has already begun. Only four international teams will be competing in the yacht race, down from a projected dozen in the original report.

And now the 9,000-seat America's Cup Pavilion, which is coming to Piers 27-29, is set to open next May, and will host a huge Sting concert on June 2, 2013, as well as other "world class" music acts throughout the summer. The pavilion will be a temporary structure, and will be dismantled following the final races in October to make way for a new cruise ship terminal.

Former supervisor Aaron Peskin and current supervisor John Avalos have both been vocal in their criticism of the race, and this huge drop in projected impacts is sure to come up in an upcoming hearing organized by Avalos. At issue, also, are any expenses for which the city might have to foot the bill.

[SF Business Times]

All previous America's Cup coverage on SFist.

"Fail" by analogskirt.

A fuming Jay Barmann sends us this message, "Running an errand downtown and once again Muni underground is having 'technical difficulties' that are causing major congestion inbound." Which, oddly enough, happened the same time last week. Expect 5 - 10 minute delays in each station.

Remember how a JetBlue plane made an emergency landing in Sacramento last month, one that blew two tires and sparked a small fire? Well, the reason for the landing has been revealed. It was due to the plane's parking brake being on at the time of landing.

Oops.

According to NY Post, "After looking into the incident, National Transportation Safety Board investigators found the parking brake on the plane was turned on as high as 5,100 feet above sea level, but the two pilots had no idea."

We're getting reports this evening that there's a subway power outage in San Francisco, resulting in Muni metro lines being "totally dead."

According to MuniAlerts: "Subway outage may last all night. Shuttle buses are running, but jam-packed and slow. Double-up on cabs if you can!"

MuniAlerts goes on to report that "[l]ight rail lines appear to be running on surface streets, but are stopping at Market St tunnel." As we write this (from the chilly living room of your editor), we can only imagine how cold it must be for those of your stuck on platforms. What's worse, Twitter ilk are reporting that shuttle service is spotty and hard to find. Sigh.

Update: 6:45 p.m.: 511 has more details on tonight's outage. " Muni subway service has been disrupted due to overhead wires being down at Van Ness Station in the inbound direction. Muni bus shuttles are operating between Embarcadero and Castro stations. "

Update 7:28 p.m. : CBS 5's Joe Vazquez (@JoeCBS5) reports: "Muni spokesman Judson True says tr[a]in repair could take hours, May not be ready until the morning commute." (Also, why is there no mention of this major Muni meltdown on SFGate yet? Strange. Wonder if it has something to do with reports saying that "Muni waited an hour to send an alert to the media.")

Update 7:40 p.m.: Check out Muni Metro Subway Alternates for alternate service info. (Note: Buses are "packed" with cold, angry Muni customers.)

Update 7:50 p.m.: Joe Vazquez (@JoeCBS5) says: "There's a fair amount of overhead wire down. Crews will be down there for the next many hours. Trains to resume at 5:30 AM." Which is to say, you can forget about taking the underground tonight, folks.

Update 8:20 p.m.: MTA spokesman Judson True explains what happened.

by Chris Jones

Well, well, well. It looks like some pesky reporter over at the Sacto Bee got snoopy and discovered that Former E-Bay CEO and current Republican gubernatorial candidate, Meg Whitman, somehow managed to forget to vote for like the entirety of her whole life. Apparently, the 53 year old Whitman only just registered to vote in 2002. Something tells this writer that failing to perform one’s civic duty at the ballot box sort of renders one’s opinions on how to run the state totally moot. Particularly, if that someone is unfortunate enough to be wandering the streets looking like Joe Lieberman, only a lady. Next?!

Oh boy.

Finally.

The failed experiment that is the CultureBus -- a very slow, yellow Muni bus that would take passengers around San Francisco (downtown to Golden Gate Park) to look at art and trees, running every hour or so -- will come to a merciful end. According to SFMTA, the CultureBus will be discontinued effective August 15.

Designed to "provide both residents and visitors with a new eco-friendly transportation alternative to and between San Francisco's popular museums and cultural institutions," the bus was popular with neither locals nor tourists. And for $7 a ride, the CultureBus never found a following.

Did you ever take a ride on the 74X? If so, why?

Update: Akit posted an obit here.

Saturday's Great American Food and Music Festival looked like it had win written all over it: ' Guy Fieri, alpha-male grilling fanboy Bobby Flay! A16's Nate Appleman! Boulevard's Nancy Oakes! LA's Pink’s Hot Dogs!, Tony Luke's Cheesesteaks! Booze! Jazzy tunes! Sun!

However, according to the unfortunate folks who attended Saturday's food and easy-listening gathering at Shoreline Amphitheater (who vented about the long lines, lack of food, computer snafus, and drink ticket nonsense) the event was, well, a shitshow.

For example, there's this:

"Jeez! A class of pre-schoolers could have done a better job organizing this festival than the producers: Serious Eats and The Agency Group.. If this event had happened in Japan, the head organizers (that's you, SeriousEats.com!!!) would have already committed suicide, and that's with 4 hours still left in the event (not suggesting that the festival organizers need to take such drastic measures)."

And this:

"...this was a crazy bad event. (which i had been looking forward to since it was first blogged about on serious eats.) i have never had such an atrocious experience at any public venue previously -- and i mean never."

And another:

In a virtual allowing-newspapers-to-accumulate-at-your-front-door-like move, Arizona resident Israel Hyman (tee hee, sounds like "hymen") left twitter messages mentioning that he was out of town. Then, as fate would have it, Hyman's residence was then robbed of thousands of dollars worth of computer equipment while he was out of town. Oops. According to reports, "Hyman has a video podcasting company and says he makes his living on Twitter, but he thinks his message may have tipped off the thieves."