SF hippy hub The Center scales back its offerings in permit clash

“We want to comply with the city and it’s really expensive to do so, so we’re trying to figure it out,” Kaufman said.

For now, it has drastically scaled down its offerings to meet the city’s definition of providing complementary incidental food, which allows businesses to give away simple snacks and drinks without a health permit. The goal is to keep the space operational as leadership figures out its path forward, Kaufman added. 

“The Center is really this urban oasis where, for almost a decade, people have come to connect with themselves, connect with each other, and have respite in the middle of the city,” he said. “I think it holds a really unique place in the city of San Francisco, both in the kind of events and workshops that happen here, but also the kind of community that’s built here.” 

The Center needs conditional use authorization to run events and its beverage business in a residential district. Currently, “none of The Center’s activities—food, beverage, entertainment, institutional—are properly permitted,” Planning Department spokesperson Dan Sider told The Standard via email. “We’ve been trying to help them remedy this for the last three years.”