On a balmy day along the Embarcadero in October 2010, then-Mayor Gavin Newsom sprung toward a microphone, gazed up toward the passengers idling on a Princess Cruises ship berthed at Pier 27 and proceeded to berate them. “Welcome to San Francisco!” he belted to the sky. “Why aren’t you out shopping?”
Newsom and a group of speakers were celebrating Pier 27 becoming the first California port to provide shoreside electrical power to cruise ships. But this was not just an occasion to boast about the power of clean energy. The maritime hub was undergoing a $100 million redesign that was central to the city’s plan for capitalizing on the cruise industry.
It would take another four years for the new James R. Herman Cruise Terminal at Pier 27 to fully come online, but the stage was set. Now, as 2025 concludes, the proverbial cruise ship has come in — and the industry is thriving in San Francisco…