To many Atlantans and tourists, Barbara Asher Square is a slice of city life that is not appealing. There's panhandling. Drug dealing. Marijuana smoking. Profanity. Fighting.

On Wednesday, Atlanta police began what they say will be an "indefinite" crackdown at the square, located near the Five Points MARTA station.

Ben Gray/AJC

Atlanta Police Officers C. Lock (left) and J. Minnoch set up barricades around all of the planter benches in Barbara M. Asher Square on Wednesday.

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Officers posted metal fence-like barricades around the dozen concrete tree planters where some like to sit and hang out throughout the day. Police also say officers will patrol the area more frequently.

"A normal person can walk through and get a negative impression of the city of Atlanta," said Lt. Wayne Whitmire, assistant zone commander for the area.

Said Kwanza Hall, the City Council member who represents the area, "This is our front doorstep to the world, and it should not look and feel like crap."

Some who frequent the square disagreed with the changes.

"We can't sit down now," complained B.K. Gray, 18, who often meets friends there and was selling Newport cigarettes Wednesday afternoon. "What are we supposed to do? Sit on the floor?"

The square, which takes up a city block, predates its name. It was officially declared Barbara M. Asher Square in 1998, three years after her death. Asher, an Atlanta councilwoman for 18 years, had been a driving force for downtown revitalization.

City officials said they have received constant complaints about the square in recent years.

Eureka White, an employee at the DOTS clothing store in the square, said she had to roust a man selling drugs outside the business Wednesday.

"[The troublemakers] deter the tourists from coming through here," said White, who wore a finger-size container of Mace around her neck.

Fellow DOTS worker Alison Ransom said employees often use the back entrance to avoid harassment. She calls the square, "the jungle."

Wednesday morning, as the crackdown began, the square's regulars watched silently as officers put the barricades around the trees. Police then patrolled in cars and on motorcycles.

Bruce Kelly, 53, who planned to feed pigeons in the square, was stunned to see the barricades.

"It's [messed] up," he said of the barricades. Police, he said, should have just patrolled "and not put them up."

By afternoon, some of the regulars showed their resourcefulness. One man slept on the hot pavement. Another sat atop one of the barricades.

Whitmire was confident the barricade-sitting would not last long.

"Those barricades do not sit very well," he said.