South Tampa’s Cake Drip is temporarily closed as its lawyers work with Hyde Park Village after the bakery was harassed by its upstairs neighbor.
A social media video posted last week shows Cake Drip owner Faronda Davis and her daughter, on Nov. 5, engaging with a woman being held back by Hyde Park Village General Manager Nicole Dee (see video at bottom of post).
“My mom was attacked at our Hyde Park location by some of the upstairs residents who have had a problem with us from day one,” the post reads, adding that the woman in the video called Davis “racial slurs and even hit her.”
Owner Faronda Davis told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that Cake Drip—located at 1625 W Snow Cir.—is the only Black-owned business in Hyde Park Village, and added that upstairs residents have complained that the business’s music is too loud since she opened in March. (Nearby Social Status has POC ownership, but is two blocks away.)
Davis told CL she thinks it goes beyond the music. Especially after the neighbor in the video allegedly verbally and physically assaulted her outside of Cake Drip on Nov. 5.
Davis said she’s done everything possible to appease the neighbors including canceling the resident DJ and changing Cake Drip’s speakers. On the day of the incident a sound engineer was at the boutique dessert shop as a last attempt to appease the neighbors.
“I had to get to get an attorney because I feel like I’ve been bullied and I’ve been dealing with this since the day I moved in,” Davis said. “I don’t think it’s about music.”
Tito Ogonsula-Smith, a Cake Drip regular, told CL she agreed with Davis.
“There’s only four or five tables in there. I’ve never been in there where I’ve had a hard time speaking to the person right in front of me,” Ogonsula-Smith said. “I have not been privy to it being louder than Meat Market. Louder than Bar Taco. Apparently that is the complaint.”
But on Nov. 5 Davis had to call the police because two of the upstairs residents wouldn't stop coming into the business and bothering them. Davis said this is not the first time she has had to call the police because of harassment and each time nothing happens. Davis said the police told her they have to catch a person in the act.
“How is that possible when you take almost an hour to get to us?” Davis said.
In the video, the woman who allegedly attacked Davis says, “Take all the pictures you want. I’m not afraid of y’all.”
“I’m sorry Faronda, I’m going to take her away,” Hyde Park Village GM Dee says as she gently pushes the woman away. The woman—who CL has not been able to reach despite numerous attempts—then gives Davis and the others the middle finger.
The video was captured after Rogers allegedly entered Cake Drip, was told to leave, yelled at the employees, called Davis a “Black bitch” and then hit Davis. The woman, who lives above Cake Drip, told Davis she was the condominium's HOA president. She also yelled at Davis’s daughter, who works at the shop, saying “I don’t want you here, I don’t want your music here.”
Davis, who still had scratches on herself, filed a battery report. Davis said the police did not talk to Rogers. “They just left me the paperwork and went about their day,” Davis said.
“It seems quite racially motivated. There's a lot of double standards,” Ogonsula-Smith said.
“If the shoe was on the other foot, if I was upstairs in her unit harassing her as a Black woman, or my husband as a Black man, this would have went completely different. We would’ve been in handcuffs or shot dead,” Davis added.
Cake Drip, which has a three-year lease in Hyde Park Village, plans on remaining closed until the store can be moved to a different location within the property. One without residents above them. Over the weekend, Cake Drip updated its Instagram page saying “Hyde park attorneys (are) working with our attorney to figure out a solution very soon.”
“I don’t want a war, I want a solution,” Davis said. “We’ve closed down our store. We can soundproof and do whatever they want but obviously it's not the music. It’s not just [the woman in the video.] Other tenants have expressed the same thing.”
“We’re not safe there. You can soundproof it but that doesn’t protect us,” Davis added. “People can still threaten us. People can still walk in and hit us.”
Today, a spokesperson for TPD told CL it could not share any documents related to the incident because the investigation is still open.
On social media, Hyde Park Village addressed situation by saying, it “supports BIPOC and female-owned businesses and will not tolerate hatred or aggression of any kind against those businesses or anyone in our community and we will use every tool we have to combat it.”
“While we can't comment here on specifics of a tenant legal matter, we can say that we are participating as much as possible to facilitate a resolution that rights the wrongs,” Hyde Park Village added. “We are turning off comments for the safety of our community.”
Alexandra Clark, a spokesperson for Hyde Park Village, told CL that her company was also working with TPD and legal counsel to address the incident. “Hyde Park Village does not tolerate hatred or aggression of any kind against our businesses or anyone in our community,” Clark said.
So the South Tampa Cake Drip is closed for now, and until there is a solution, Cake Drip’s St. Petersburg shop, at 1104 Central Ave. is open for business.
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