Charles Colwell and his 36-year-old son Jeff have been planning to open a 1,250-square-foot bar featuring televised sports and standard bar food at 1311 E. Carson St.

South Side residents and merchants have been planning to stop them.

More than a dozen South Siders turned out for a liquor license transfer hearing yesterday in Green Tree; four testified, hoping to persuade hearing examiner Thomas Miller to recommend against.

Many residents attribute broken bottles, vandalized properties and a rise in the most serious crimes to an increase in liquor licenses.

The South Side Community Council's bar task force has reported that of 100 restaurants with liquor licenses on the South Side, 64 are on East Carson. It claims the number of licenses has risen from 77 to 99 in 10 years. The numbers could not be confirmed.

The council's bar task force has stepped up its effort in recent months with petitions and lobbying.

City Councilman Jeffrey Koch, who represents the area, said yesterday he will introduce legislation Monday to prohibit any additional license transfers on East Carson between 10th and 25th streets.

He said a Commonwealth Court decision from 1998 cites that "the welfare, health, peace and morals of inhabitants of neighborhoods are grounds for limiting licenses" which set precedent for the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board to reject applications.

Bill Martin has owned Dee's Cafe on East Carson since 1980. He testified that he experienced a 9 percent drop in business last year and attributed it to competition from other bars.

"Do you believe your bar has a negative effect?" asked the Colwells' attorney, Charles Caputo.

"Not mine. Mine's a neighborhood bar," he said. "I control my bar."

Mr. Caputo asked Mary Ann Sevick, a South Side resident, how she could judge his client's intentions before he had a chance to prove them: "Do you know what type of bar it's going to be?"

"A bar," she said.

Mr. Martin and Ms. Sevick were among several South Side stakeholders who testified and wrote earlier protest letters to the LCB. Among their claims: The bar culture has promoted street crime and the intense competition has driven some bars to advertise specials such as $1 beers.

"So a college student with $5 in his pocket can get trashed and we have to act as parents," said Ms. Sevick, who lives a block off Carson with her husband, Nick Kefal. They spent the first two years of their home ownership renovating the property they have lived in for three years.

Mr. Caputo challenged Mr. Kefal and Ms. Sevick's standing to testify. They said they are confident they meet the requirement of living within 500 feet of the bar but have not measured.

Charles Nogal has lived on the South Side since 1943 and owns the Glazing Pot across the street from the proposed bar.

"I'm getting too old to clean up puke and used prophylactics," he told the court. "All these kids are coming in, getting loaded and beating up properties. I have no windows. I've had to replace them too many times."