PROVIDENCE –– Every weekend, hundreds of young adults fill the streets of a five-block section near Providence College, looking for a party.

They come from different colleges throughout the city, or show up in carloads from the suburbs. Music blasts from the tenements and triple-deckers, while throngs gather in the streets with red cups of beer or mixed drinks, wandering from one place to another.

And, doors away are small, neatly kept houses with tidy lawns and gardens, owned by residents, who endure the noise, trash, drunkenness and disruption that comes from unwillingly living in the heart of the party.

“That section of Elmhurst is like a war zone every weekend,” said Ward 5 City Councilman Michael Solomon.

Now, Solomon, the Providence police, and officials from Johnson & Wales University, Providence College and Rhode Island College are working together to end this area’s party reputation –– one that’s probably as old as the college students attending the bashes.

Lt. Daniel Gannon, the district commander for the area, has been leading “Operation Red Cup,” named for the plastic cups strewn by partygoers on the sidewalks and streets of the neighborhood every weekend.

For years, these five streets bordered by Eaton and Smith –– Tyndall, Pinehurst, Radcliffe, Pembroke and Oakland avenues –– have had a reputation that comes with rows of tenements and triple-deckers filled with college students. Residents have complained about the roving bands of disorderly young people, who toss their beer bottles and plastic cups on the lawns and streets, blare music, and stagger drunkenly onto other people’s property, Gannon said.

Last week, the police started the first of weekly crackdowns. So far, they’ve arrested 50 people on alcohol charges, including 27 students from Johnson & Wales, 3 from RIC, and 4 from PC, Gannon said. The rest are just young people heading into the city, looking for a good time, he said.

Among those caught with bottles of beer and cups of rum and Coke was a Johnson & Wales student carrying a backpack filled with marijuana, some of it already in individual plastic bags, according to a police report. Dylan Cronk, 20, of 256 Ives St., was charged with marijuana possession and underage possession of alcohol, for the cup of “moonshine” in his hand.

The police arrested young people wandering in traffic with cups of alcohol, broke up a keg party in a basement thrown by people who didn’t live in the house, and ended beer pong games.

Instead of just issuing summonses, Gannon said he’s also reporting to the colleges when their students are arrested. Officials from Johnson & Wales, PC, and RIC — all of which have “good neighbor policies” for students living off-campus — said the students caught for alcohol offenses will face disciplinary action, which could include probation or suspension from their schools.

The threat of college sanctions seems to worry students much more than the $150 fines, Gannon said. “Their parents are paying $40,000 a year for them to go to school,” he said.

Solomon is focusing on the landlords who rent to troublesome tenants. He’s drafted an ordinance, which should be emerging from committee this week, which orders landlords to evict tenants or face fines ranging from $250 to $1,000 after three calls for disturbances at their properties within one year. Landlords who live more than 20 miles outside of Providence will be required to designate a registered agent who can respond to immediate complaints or concerns.

Solomon said the group is working on other plans to control the party zone –– increasing security and adding police foot patrols, having the three colleges take responsibility for weekly neighborhood cleanups, and educating students on being good neighbors.

Ultimately, Gannon said, he wants to bring the college students and residents together, find a way to establish some neighborly ties and encourage mutual respect, so the students learn how to be good neighbors.

But Friday afternoon, plastic red cups and beer bottles were still strewn on Pembroke Avenue and Chad Brown Street, where the police had made most of their arrests only 12 hours earlier. A group of students from Johnson & Wales, hanging out on their stoop, were nonchalant about the crackdown.

Gannon said the police will keep the pressure on. They will pursue those throwing the parties by enforcing the state’s new social host law and pressuring landlords of party houses to control their tenants. He’s asking people to also report parties and nuisance houses at the tipline for the Mayor’s Council on Substance Abuse: (866) ALC-DRUG.

“We’ll pull all of the levers we have to enforce the laws,” Gannon said. “It’s not over. We’re still going. We’re trying to better the quality of life for the residents up here.”

amilkovi@projo.com