Aussies have rallied to save a cafe amid fears its owners are being pressured to leave over a disputed parking spot at the rear of the venue.
A concerned resident took to Reddit to appeal for help in saving Blume Specialty Coffee on the Hornirbrook Highway in Brighton, north Brisbane.
“Blume Cafe is being pressured by neighboring unit owners (with dirty tricks) to give up one of their paid staff parking spaces at the rear of the complex,” they wrote.
‘According to the unit owners, they want their guests to use one of the staff parking spaces that the cafe pays for in their lease.
“The unit owners have forced Blume Cafe to remove the street signs (via complaints to Brisbane City Council).”
Locals alleged that the unit owners had taken drastic action against the cafe.
“The unit owners set up a car blockade every weekend to take up approximately five on-street parking spaces, using three cars spaced some distance apart,” they wrote.
‘For this purpose, the blockade trucks are removed from the garages of the unit owner.
A concerned resident took to Reddit to ask for help saving Blume Specialty Coffee on the Hornirbrook Highway in Brighton, Brisbane’s north
‘Any idea how this will end? Do you have any suggestions to save our great little local cafe?’
Social media users were quick to offer their suggestions, with one creating a list of possible actions.
“Provide car signs/magnets made with ‘Cafe Open’ and park cars in front of the door with those signs in them,” one person wrote.
‘This does not solve the parking problem, but it does send a signal to the mean neighbors. Buy ‘Cafe Open’ signs for bicycles and park them in front of the door.
“Have all the neighbors post great reviews on Google and other social media, and especially call out the mean neighbors. People love an underdog story.
‘Write to the municipality with the request to reserve the parking spaces in front of the door for a maximum of 2 hours.
‘That’s enough for customers to come by, but it would be annoying for the mean neighbors to have to park and move their car.
‘Write to the councilor – or better yet – call the office – requesting that the council fees for the signage application be waived due to cost of living pressures (worth a try).”
“Blume Cafe is being pressured by neighboring unit owners (with dirty tricks) to give up one of their paid staff parking spaces at the rear of the complex,” the concerned resident wrote on Reddit
A second wrote: ‘They are my local and are fantastic. My Saturday morning treat is walking to the dog park and stopping by for coffee.”
‘Their coffee is top notch and the staff is lovely. They ensure that the Men’s Shed across the road can also sell a selection of clothing, and the atmosphere is just great.
“F*** these losers trying to ruin their business. I would like to know if any of them are self-employed and how they would feel about it…’
“They need to gather groups of cyclists who stop during their ride,” another added.
‘That will irritate the residents endlessly, because: ‘A) they don’t need a parking space and are therefore not affected by the parking nonsense they do, B) a lot of things. Cyclists often want to drink their coffee and get started.
“C) when they get business with cyclists, it’s usually pretty solid return business. Residents will also hate it.’
A fourth had advice for unit owners.
“It appears that their guests can park in one of the available garage spaces now that residents are parking on the street,” they wrote.
Others accused the neighbors of bullying the cafe.
‘What a shame for those who bully the cafe! “I was only there two days ago, the staff are so nice and the coffee was delicious,” one person wrote.
A second added: ‘The cafe owner and staff are so lovely, it was really upsetting to see this bullying.’
The cafe’s owners declined to comment when contacted by Daily Mail Australia.