A month after more than 100 police officers shut down open-air drug markets in the Barclay and East Baltimore Midway neighborhoods, the area remains free of drug activity and drug-related violence, residents say.

Children play on the sidewalks where dealers had blatantly hawked their dope. Some residents sit on front steps that drug lookouts once manned, and others leave their windows open at night. The crackle of gunfire is only a memory. "Almost heaven" is one resident's description of the area.

However, less than two miles away, in communities near Preston and Bond streets and Holbrook and Hoffman streets, residents say they have seen a marked increase in drug trafficking since the police sweep.

Residents say they've noticed new faces among the junkies who now roam the area at all hours in search of drugs. And dealers, who have always prospered in the area, are more than willing to oblige.

"We're pretty desperate in the 1400 block of Bond St. now," said Candice Campbell, who has lived in the community for 44 years. "It was bad anyway. Now it's worse."

The neighborhood near Bond and Preston -- called Greenmount East -- already had severe problems with drug trafficking. Now it is flooded with addicts.

Some residents are so fed up that they openly discuss their encounters with dealers and drug abusers:

* One woman said she is so intimidated by the drug dealers and buyers lurking near her North Bond Street residence that she rTC calls for a police escort whenever she leaves her home.

* Another woman said a drug dealer told her she had "some nerve" when she asked him to move from in front of her house on Holbrook Street.

* A man said he has had to park a block from his Hoffman Street home because all the parking spaces are taken by people waiting to purchase drugs. "And this is in the middle of the day," he said.

* A woman stepped out of her North Bond Street house early one morning to see two gunmen robbing two other men. The gunmen casually looked at the woman as they continued to frisk their victims.

"What it all boils down to is that the police are shifting the drugs from one place to another," said Robert Tillman, a 32-year-old man who lives with his girlfriend near the intersection of Preston and Bond.

"They cleaned out Greenmount Avenue of all of its drugs. Fine. So their mission was successful. But how successful is it when everybody from up there come down here [to] get high?"

Police swept through the Barclay-East Baltimore Midway neighborhood on March 19 as part of "Operation Midway."

Raids at 14 houses culminated a six-week investigation in which officers obtained warrants charging 42 adults with weapons and drug offenses. The raids were aimed at getting drug offenders, particularly those with violent backgrounds, off the streets.

But that was only part of "Operation Midway." Soon after the raids the community began to be transformed: City sanitation crews swept the sidewalks and alleys and hauled away tons of debris, and wrecking crews demolished an entire block of rowhouses where drugs were used.

But more important, police have maintained a presence in the area.

"That was the key," said Shondra Allen, 35, who lives with her two children in the 500 block of E. 21st St. "The police just stayed here. They haven't left yet. That's probably the main reason the streets aren't full of drug dealers no more."

Police cars now regularly cruise the area, and an officer can usually be found somewhere along Greenmount Avenue between North Avenue and 25th Street.

Maj. Alvin A. Winkler, the Eastern District commander, said an additional foot officer and a patrol car with two officers are assigned indefinitely to the area as well as two cars from the department's tactical unit.

"We believed that if we removed the criminal element from the street, the neighborhood would be more responsive and cooperate to keep it safe and drug free," Major Winkler said. "The arrests backed a strong investigation."

The raids proved successful in crime prevention. According to police statistics, in 1993, 39 violent crimes were reported in the area from March 19 to April 15. Seven were reported during the same period this year.

The only reminders of the area's former life are occasional discarded syringes found in alleys that had been missed by cleanup crews.

"It's just plain peaceful here now," said Ruth Wright, 45, as she sat on the marble steps in front of her home in the 2000 block of Greenmount.

Ms. Wright, who has lived in the house for 32 years, said that until the raids she had never allowed her 4-year-old grandson, Kevin Beasley, to play on the sidewalk. "I think it's all right now, but you still have to be out there with him."

But the scene is different in the Greenmount East neighborhood. Few children play on sidewalks in the 1300 and 1400 blocks of North Bond. Much of that turf belongs to drug dealers, and the residents know it.

At dusk, lookouts stand near a 6-foot concrete wall of a bridge in the 1300 block of Bond St. that overlooks train tracks. They aggressively summon customers and take drug orders.

"How [do] you look the other way when every corner you look has a drug dealer on it? Every day we see more and more white people who come here only to buy drugs. That's the only reason they're here, [because] this place right now is where to come to buy drugs," said a man who spoke from the front steps of his home in the 1400 block of Bond, a predominantly black neighborhood.

The man, who asked not to be identified, said there is seldom a lull in the drug trafficking.

"They are always out there -- especially since Greenmount. Whenever you want something, they'll be out here. I wonder when they sleep," the man said.

A visitor who drove through the neighborhood several nights last week was offered drugs by different dealers every time.

Major Winkler said police were aware that some of the drug trafficking from Greenmount Avenue would resurface elsewhere. He is also aware of the increased drug activity in the Greenmount East communities.

"We're going to do something about it," he said, adding that he hopes to put more foot patrol officers in the areas where drug dealing is rampant. "We want to cut off the avenues for the addicts."

Venetta Cooper, who lives near Bethel and Lanvale streets, said the drug dealing and violence increase at night.

"Sometimes, between 1 and 5 [a.m.], I hear a 'bam, bam,' and see people running in and out of cars. And I have to go to work early," Ms. Cooper said. "You're wondering where's the police because you don't see any."

Candice Campbell, who lives on North Bond Street, said darkness brings so many people to the nearby open-air drug bazaar that "it's like being downtown."

"Preston and Bond is a mess. You go down and lock them up and then they get right back out," said Officer Myron McClain, a foot patrol officer. "I might go there and lock up four people and there's six to take their place."

Officer McClain, who has worked in Greenmount East for four years, said it appears that more people are coming to the neighborhood to buy drugs while the number of dealers remains roughly the same. He noted that there has been relatively little drug-related violence stemming from turf battles.

Councilman Carl Stokes, a Democrat whose 2nd District encompasses the communities near Greenmount, Bond and Holbrook, said he is pressing for a greater police presence along Bond Street, as well as surveillance of drug activity.

"I'm feeling the pain of it because my church [St. Francis Xavier, at Oliver and Caroline streets] is right there," Mr. Stokes. "Truth is, much of East Baltimore has become an open-air drug market."