I admit I'm getting a little bit into neighborhood-blogging territory here---the corner the Seattle Police Department is targeting for drug activity is right by where I live. But! This is newsworthy:

In response to complaints from neighbors and people working in the area, police have been doing surveillance on hand-to-hand drug transactions and identified people they say deal drugs in Columbia City and Hillman City.

The boundaries of the operation are 37th Avenue South to 47th Avenue South and South Brandon Street to South Edmunds Street. The effort began Oct. 19, according to police documents.

When one undercover detective was purchasing drugs in that area on Nov. 1, a group of kids age 10 to 15 started conversations with him as they were getting off a school bus, police reported. Noting the problems in the area, the detective wrote in court documents that kids have to walk through street drug deals to get home.

(As, ahem, do women ).

Anyway, while it's debatable whether the previous Drug Market Initiative, focused on the Central District, actually was a success (as Jonah notes at Seattlecrime.com, a third of the participants "flunked" out of the program, and drug dealers appear to be returning to the area), I'm glad to see the cops taking neighborhood residents' complaints seriously. Now if only Metro would do something about the two incredibly dangerous bus stops at that intersection...