While the High Speed Rail Authority figures out how to round up enough money to lay track and get travelers zipping down to SoCal, Chronicle columnist and noted Jimmy Buffett fan C.W. Nevius wants to know why we're not already sailing between San Francisco and other West Coast ports of call. The city is putting in all this infrastructure to cater to cruise ships before the America's Cup, and we love our tourists (or the $8.6 billion per year the city makes off of them, anyway) so what's keeping San Francisco from becoming a popular bermuda shirt destination? more ›

Do you understand how much 26 pounds of cocaine is? It's a lot. Like, enough to make the entire city of San Francisco pretty high for at least an evening. Not that we'd ever participate, but you know. So we've heard. And that's how much was found in two cabins of a cruise ship docked at Pier 35 by officers of Customs and Border Patrol, Homeland Security, and the Coast Guard during a routine inspection in recent weeks. more ›

With the swine flu almost reaching pandemic levels, cruise ships that were scheduled to head down south to Mexico will instead dock at the Port of San Francisco, as well as Victoria, British Columbia, and Seattle. According to SF Chron, "there were nine ship calls scheduled in May before the flu kept the ships out of Mexico. Now 18 are scheduled" to make appearances on the waterfront. San Francisco, it seems, sees "50 to 60 cruise ship calls a year"; this year, however, we'll have 70. What does this mean? An extra $500,000 in city revenue. "It's excellent," squealed Port of San Francisco marketing director Michael Nerney. Also, in related mixed-message news, SF health officials would like you to stop overreacting to the pig sniffles, please. more ›