It was high noon on a very sunny Thursday at the corner of the busiest intersection in Newark.

Lunch time at the corner of Broad and Market, like rush hour and when schools let out, is a busy time for the local, ah, entrepreneurs.

When the buses, businesses and schools empty out, the hand-to-hand drug dealers and panhandlers are there to meet and greet.

But on this day last week, the corner boys saw more cops than customers, as part of a new police initiative to clean up Broad and Market.

Newark police officers Ercelle Spellman and Janet Santiago, in uniform and wearing hi-viz green/yellow vests, approached two young men standing in the vestibule of a convenience store called Brothers Traders.

"What are you doing down here?" Spellman asked.

"Waiting for the bus," one answered.

"The bus stop is over there," she said. "If you're waiting for the bus, go to the bus stop."

They moved along, which store owner Mohammed Rony said is "very good for us."

"They come (the small vestibule) like it's their store, not ours, like they're the owners," Rony said. "But the last few days with all the police (around) has been very good."

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The police come on foot, on horseback, stand-up scooters, motorcycles and black-and-white patrol cars.

Those are the ones you see.

The department is also using plainclothes and undercover officers, with some help from the Essex County Sheriff's office, during "quality of life" sweeps in the downtown area, spreading out from Four Corners.

During an operation in the first week of June, police made 30 arrests and seized 51 decks of heroin, 15 bags of pot and about 191 prescription painkillers.

They also wrote 35 quality of life summonses, which include littering, unlicensed peddling and obstructing public passageway. They made 63 traffic stops and wrote 110 motor vehicle violations.

That was just the first sweep. Anthony Ambrose, the city's public safety director says they will keep coming -- and frequently.

"This is no one-day thing," he said. "We're changing how we do things."

The intersection of Broad and Market streets has been the center of Newark since its founding. Robert Treat actually lived there.

During the 1910s and 20s, "Four Corners" was known as the busiest intersection in the world. Whether it was true or not, a one-day count by the state in October of 1926, saw 26,228 cars, 6,742 buses and trolleys, and 3,474 trucks pass through the intersection.

The city's oldest skyscrapers - Fireman's Insurance building, National Newark (744 Broad) and 1180 Raymond Boulevard - were built near the intersection.

But the bustle of the 1920s is very different than the modern chaos of Four Corners.

"When I took over (in December)," Ambrose said, "the first thing the mayor (Ras Baraka) said to me was, 'We've got to clean up Broad and Market.

"He said, "Every time I walk through there, and I got three or four drug dealers approaching me."

Margie Toney, owner of Urban Eyewear, has been in business on the corner for six years, and loves the new police presence.

"I had to replace the door twice, that window once and that window once," she said, pointing to her storefront. "Everything is Plexiglas now so the kids can't break it.

"I have a hard time keeping employees," she said. "They don't feel safe."

Toney has had stores in Paterson, Brooklyn and the Bronx and said Newark is the first place she's ever hired a security guard.

"His job is to keep the kids away from the door."

She said her biggest problem is when school lets out and hundreds of kids converge on the intersection.

"They've had fights that stop traffic," she said.

Toney said one fight happened when her landlord, Michael Hirschhorn, was showing a vacancy to representatives from Burlington Coat Factory.

"That was that," she said. "They didn't want the business."

And that is bad for business.

"This is the hub of the city," Ambrose said. "You can't a negative perception. We're going to get rid of those negative perceptions."

"We hear from business owners all the time," said Newark Police Sgt. Louis Plaza, who is in charge of the Newark Downtown Task Force, housed in a storefront next to the old Paramount.

"They love having us on the street," he said. "It makes them feel we have a vested interest in their success."

Lee Young pays $250 a year for his peddlers' license and has a cart stocked with Afrocentric merchandise. He is glad the city is cracking down on "guys who put out a blanket on the street.

"I'm doing everything right, I pay for my spot, and those guys hurt my business," he said. "They just add to the chaos."

On Thursday, there were lunch time concerts in Military Park, with food trucks and outdoor exhibits. There are luxury apartments in the old skyscrapers, new stores and apartments at Teacher's Village, a new Prudential office towers and the Hahne's Building project is moving along. A large retail, residential and hotel complex called Four Corners Millennium is planned.

All of the good is in jeopardy if the chaos overwhelms it.

"We can't tolerate open air drug markets. It's tough. You arrest one guy, another guy takes over," Ambrose said. "But we'll get it done."

Mark Di Ionno may be reached at mdiionno@starledger.com. Follow The Star-Ledger on Twitter @StarLedger and find us on Facebook.