The former Army paratrooper's ensemble was classy yet understated - gray miniskirt, white blouse, black heels and matching handbag and gloves.

His goatee, however, clashed.

On a gray, drizzly morning along Dundalk Avenue, the cross-dresser was among a Fellini-like cast of two female prostitutes and a dozen of their male customers arrested by Baltimore police in their latest undercover "decoy" operation against a flourishing trade.

In two months, nearly 300 women and their "johns," or customers, have been arrested for prostitution-related crimes in Southeast Baltimore, nearly a third along Dundalk and Holabird avenues. Across the Baltimore County line, police are stepping up similar operations.

Tough times have fallen on Dundalk Avenue, which began in the 19th century as a route for farm produce from the Patapsco Neck peninsula to Baltimore markets .

"It's just awful - this area has gone downhill," said Cindy Messina of Graceland Park, mother of two daughters, ages 15 and 3. "The truckers and other customers of the prostitutes try to pick you up; you can't walk in your own neighborhood anymore."

At its zenith in the 1950s and 1960s, Dundalk Avenue boasted the Brentwood Inn, a four-star restaurant with sommelier; the Carlton and Colgate movie theaters; the Circle Bar-B-Q, one of Baltimore's most famous drive-ins; and a safer, more comfortable way of life.

Today, a public library sits closed, a troubled public housing complex a few blocks west awaits the wrecking ball, and some residents are afraid to leave their homes at night.

To the south, across Holabird Avenue, Baltimore County residents want officials to revitalize their end of Dundalk Avenue as a gateway for new waterfront villages, marinas and a museum.

In spite of recent initiatives by the city and Maryland State Police - requested and welcomed by residents - prostitution and related criminal behavior have some people wishing they could move from houses they've lived in their entire lives.

Street hookers have become so brazen that even the most hardened police officers see Dundalk Avenue as a shocking, sometimes bizarre, universe.

"One john drove up to me in his car to discuss sex, and I had to do a double take because he was stark naked," said police Agent Maggie Duffy, who works as a police decoy. Another time, Duffy arrested a man who solicited sex as two small children sat in the back seat of his car.

One summer day, a mother told police that her teen-age daughter was followed by a man for blocks as he waved a sexual toy at her, trying to solicit her.

Hookers and drug dealers have also lured sinister visitors.

John P. Garcia, 55, a forklift operator from Dundalk, was known by police to stalk Dundalk Avenue and Patterson Park. He has been charged with killing two prostitutes and attempting to kill two other women in Southeast Baltimore.

On Aug. 29, Officer Patty Silvers was posing as a prostitute in the 1500 block of Dundalk Ave. when she was approached by a man who solicited sex.

Silvers attempted to arrest him, she said, but he bit her several times on the hand. The man was subdued by other officers, but a dreaded danger of police work immediately struck Silvers, a mother of three.

"The pain in my hand was just awful, but all I could think of lying on the ground was, 'What disease does this guy have, what will I catch?'" said Silvers. After a series of tests, she was given a clean bill of health and was back on the decoy squad.

Prostitutes who frequent Dundalk Avenue are at great risk to themselves and johns, said Sid Ford, director of You Are Not Alone, a Baltimore outreach program for prostitutes. He said they are on the lowest rung of the commercial sex industry.

"The women along Dundalk Avenue are very, very sick and likely to have anything from hepatitis and tuberculosis to HIV," he said. "They are usually addicted to heroin or crack, malnourished and often homeless."

As an example, one prostitute arrested there in July was rushed to a hospital instead of jail. "Both of her legs had gangrene," said city police Sgt. Frederick Dillon, who heads the Southeastern District vice unit.

In better times

The neighborhood around Dundalk Avenue, from Eastern to Holabird avenues, did not always have such a dark edge.

"It was a place I wanted to move from the projects at O'Donnell Heights," said Donald Crockett, a county liquor inspector. That started changing in the 1980s, Crockett said. "Now the city is going to tear down O'Donnell Heights. After they do, they should put up signs: 'Enter at your own risk.'"

Marge Pagan, for 10 years owner of Pagan's Audio on Holabird Avenue on the county side, is no longer pondering a move - she has decided to go.

"The hookers stagger past my shop messed up on drugs and get picked up by men on Holabird," said Pagan, who resides above her business. "I'm getting out of here."

Residents say the prostitutes are more careful since the police crackdown started in July. But they remain an unfortunate part of the landscape.

"I seen two whores get into a fistfight over a trick right in front of my house," said Peter Mickno, 65, a retiree who feels trapped in his well-kept home on Dundalk Avenue.

Others along the shaded side streets have seen prostitutes and their johns consummating their meetings in driveways, next to hedges and under trees.

Dundalk Avenue was hailed last year on a national Web site as one of the city's premier pickup areas for prostitutes. It was described as "always active and always cheap. ... All [the prostitutes] are renegades, so you don't have to worry about pimps or jacked-up prices. ... There are no motels in the immediate area, but there is the industrial park and neighborhood alleys."

County leaders hope to convert their side of Dundalk Avenue into a tree-lined gateway for a community of new homes, marinas and a museum. Many hope to stop the advance of prostitution with revitalization - if millions of dollars for development follow government promises.

Baltimore County police Capt. Don Roby, commander of the North Point Precinct, has formed a partnership with city police Maj. John E. Long Jr., the Southeastern District commander, who organized in July the offensive against crime on the city side of Dundalk Avenue

"It's much more than a crime problem, it's their quality of life," said Long. "We have a good working relationship with the people of Dundalk Avenue and will continue to set up stings and make arrests."

In the latest operation, city officers started arresting johns shortly after 4 a.m. The driver of an 18-wheeler from Louisiana attempted to flee after he was nabbed striking a deal for sex with an undercover female officer. Five officers swarmed over the cab of his truck and arrested him. The driver's excuse for attempting to flee: His clutch kept slipping.

30-year veteran

Sergeant Dillon listened to the story with patience - and doubt. A veteran of 30 years of police work, Dillon earned the department's Medal of Honor for saving an officer's life in 1992.

"The neighborhood people fighting to keep their community rejuvenates me," Dillon said. "They have watched prostitutes come in and take over their neighborhood, and the hookers could not exist without the customers - and they run the gamut from truck driver and banker to police officer."

A city police officer was arrested there in July.

The prostitutes come from out of state and across Maryland, Dillon said. "We just arrested three prostitutes from Toledo, Ohio, and I asked them why they came all the way to Southeast Baltimore to work.

"To them, the answer's easy," Dillon said. "This is where the money is."