Two years ago, Vince Amaro moved his antique business into a red-brick building in East Lake that had been in his family since the 1960s, despite the fact that its neighbor across the street was a porn theater.

Amaro spruced up the outside. He hung a handsome sign with scalloped corners. Employees stacked steamer trunks in front of display windows and lined the walls with old writing desks and a massive hunter's cabinet. Recently, the staff added a Christmas tree draped with candy canes and plastic poinsettias.

But no matter the holiday, or the inventory, there was one thing about those window displays Amaro couldn't change.

The view on the other side of the plate glass always included a string of adult-oriented businesses: The Cinema Blue, with its weathered marquee, Pleasure Books and its badly buckled sign and a third shop, Birmingham Adult Books.

The businesses have bothered Amaro, and he wasn't the only one. As neighbors wandered into the store, conversations often drifted to the trio of shops on the other side of 1st Avenue North.

"People would say, 'Man, East Lake could really be something if they could just get rid of that theater,'" Amaro said.

Ultimately, Amaro decided that he should be the one to do something about it.

And so he offered to buy the place.

At first, the owners wanted too much money. But Amaro stuck with it, and recruited a team of investors. After a year of negotiation, the group came to an agreement.

Decades of conflict



In early December, Amaro and his partners closed the deal, purchasing the Cinema Blue and the adjacent Pleasure Books. Both businesses will close by February of next year.

The pending closure of those businesses has thrilled neighbors who have fought those businesses practically since the day they opened their doors. Cinema Blue has operated in East Lake since 1974, after a brief interlude as the College Art Theater and a longer run as a mainstream movie house that opened in 1947.

The battle between the neighborhood and adult-oriented businesses ultimately grew to include some of the most powerful politicians in the state. Early on, clergy picketed the theater, and briefly shut it down before it reopened as the Cinema Blue. Pat Sewell, who represented East Lake on the Birmingham City Council two decades ago, appealed to Alabama Attorney General Jimmy Evans in the 1990s. Evans waged a successful campaign to shut down pornographic businesses in Montgomery when he was a district attorney there in the 1970s. In the 1990s, he took the crackdown statewide - and right into the heart of Jefferson County.

Cinema Blue, Pleasure Books and Birmingham Adult Books paid thousands of dollars in fines during the anti-obscenity crusade - but they never closed down.

Families at risk

Neighbors said the businesses have cast a pall on the community.

"This area is not a wealthy area," said Anastasia Keenan, who lives in Roebuck Springs and works at Estate Liquidators. "To have indignities like that inflicted on this community has been a drag."

One night last December, Keenan saw a young father walking his young child down the street. When he realized they were about to pass in front of the strip of pornographic businesses, he hauled his child across five lanes of traffic to the sidewalk in front of Amaro's shop.

Barrett Elementary School sits behind Amaro's business. But a gap in the building provides a clear path between the Cinema Blue and the grounds of the school. Students often stream past the cinema on the way to and from school, Keenan said.

East Lake revival

Amaro owns several buildings in the heart of old East Lake. His father bought the properties in the 1960s, and Amaro has hung on to the investment. For a while, it looked like the property would increase in value on its own. Interest in other neighborhoods on the Eastside had begun to heat up, and some in East Lake believed redevelopment in Crestwood and Woodlawn would ultimately roll into their community, which was pocked with abandoned houses, payday lenders and fast food outlets.

The Great Recession stalled investment in East Lake, said long-time resident Finnegan Spencer. When it became obvious that outside investors would not swoop in to buy the Cinema Blue or the bookshops, Amaro decided to do it on his own.

A string of new businesses have moved in to the buildings owned by Amaro. A gym and fitness studio recently moved in to the block, for example.

And once the Cinema Blue and Pleasure Books close, a family-owned business consisting of a small cafe and vintage shop will open across the street. One real estate agent active in the area said he used to have to sweep used needles out of neighborhood buildings. But things are changing, and new merchants are sprucing up old properties.

Betting on a new beginning

Amber Tolbert began to imagine East 59 Vintage and Cafe six months after she and her husband moved to East Lake. They felt drawn to the neighborhood and the people, and Tolbert wanted to create a space where neighbors could gather.

"I really feel that the area could be a destination," Tolbert said. "There are really good people here who deserve something to be proud of."

Tolbert had been doing some tutoring in the area, and was already aware of the adult businesses that operated in the area. The gravity of the situation in East Lake hit home when she saw a third grader who frequented her tutoring session crossing in front of the Cinema Blue. She quickly told the child to avoid walking in front of those shops.

"The closure of those businesses is immediately going to bring light into this community," Tolbert said. "It's an investment, but Vince is really taking a risk. There's no guarantee this will pay off."

Tolbert and others are quick to tout the neighborhood's assets: Ruffner Mountain Nature Preserve, the Southern Museum of Flight and East Lake Park. The neighborhood originated as a resort community surrounding attractions like the Cascade Plunge, a swimming pool surrounded by grandstands, and the Roebuck Springs Country Club. The country club went out of business, but its golf course still exists under the jurisdiction of the City of Birmingham.

East Lake sits near the intersection of Interstates 59 and 20. And the area is so big that it encompasses several different, smaller neighborhoods, from South East Lake south of Oporto-Madrid and North East Lake on the other side to Roebuck Springs and Wahouma on the edges of the community.

But the community has suffered years of neglect. Tudor-style houses and bungalows that date back more than 50 years have slid into disrepair. It's not uncommon to see a newly renovated property sitting next to a burned-out shell. When the adult businesses on 1st Avenue close, Amaro said he hopes the balance will shift, and investors will see the neighborhood's potential. Keenan said the community has been experiencing an upswing, and removing Cinema Blue and Pleasure Books will create a clean slate for those who want to invest.

"I think it's a real exciting, transitional moment in the history of East Lake," she said. "Vince, as business-oriented as he is, has a real altruism about him."

From the underground up

Fennigan Spencer spoke across a plate piled with spaghetti and meat sauce.

"Some people are talkers," he said. "Vince is a doer."

For years, residents of East Lake have fretted about the presence of adult-oriented businesses in their community. Many of those discussions happened in the basement of the East Lake United Methodist Church, in a small diner that serves hot lunch plus dessert for six dollars every weekday, often using produce available at the East Lake Farmer's Market.

The Downstairs Diner consists of an industrial kitchen and a dining area down the hall. There's an upright piano, photographs of homes and landmarks and a dozen mismatched tables and chairs.

Spencer grew up in East Lake - his mother was one of the founders of Ruffner Mountain Nature Conservancy. He knows the neighborhood's strengths, but also its challenges.

"For years, if you wanted anything illicit, you would start at this intersection and go downtown," he said.

Now the neighborhood is trying to turn that around. The East Lake United Methodist Church is a hub of this change. The church keep produce buses that fan out across the neighborhood, offering fresh fruits and vegetables from the farmers market. All those efforts are bringing the neighborhood closer together.

"We all got the red ore in our blood from Ruffner Mountain," Spencer said. "Howard College used to be over here, and it still has that college atmosphere. We like things a little bit different."

The community is coming together around more than the diner's plates of fresh food. Many East Lake residents are supporting an effort to reopen L. Frazier Banks Middle School as a technical training academy. The school closed in 2006 and has become a canvas for graffiti artists and a haven for the homeless.

Volunteers have been gathering on Sundays for three months to clear out debris and make the building usable again.

That's the same kind of community spirit Amaro will need to complete his plans for the old adult businesses. He and his partners have purchased the properties, but they will need more money to renovate the property and turn it into a performing arts center for the community.

"We're looking for another ten investors," Amaro said. "It wouldn't be a huge investment on their part. It wouldn't be difficult for the average person to do it."

Amaro's plans call for family-friendly entertainment at the renovated theater. It will be a radical reinvention of a cinema that has housed adult-only entertainment for years.

"He's betting that people can forget what those places have been for so long," Tolbert said.

And if they can forget the past, they might be able to start thinking about the future of East Lake.