South Side residents and business owners say they are dismayed, but not surprised, that another orange "public notice of application" for transfer of a liquor license has appeared on East Carson Street.

The notice of the pending application at 1311 East Carson has drawn a spate of protest letters to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board.

"Just what we need, another watering hole," wrote Charles Nogal, who owns a ceramics business across the street. "I think it is time to say enough already."

"How many places do you need to get a drink?" said Tasso Spanos, a pain therapist whose office is on East Carson. His Saturday morning patients often walk through garbage and broken bottles, he said. "There apparently is no mechanism to control the number of bars in this area."

Dawn Petrosky, spokeswoman for the Liquor Control Board, said the application is being re-investigated after it was found deficient last month, and if the LCB is then satisfied, it will hold a public hearing, "given the protests that have been filed against the application."

The LCB notifies valid protesters of a hearing date at least 10 days in advance, she said.

An application can be denied if it does not meet the requirements of the state liquor code and/or if the protests are valid and substantive, she said.

The applicants for the transfer are Charles and Jeffrey Colwell, neither of whom could be reached for comment. The building owner, Maurice Nernberg, did not return calls.

Regardless of this bar's future, the larger issue to many residents and business owners is that state law is allowing more than the quality of life can bear. The South Side Community Council's bar task force, which has been actively opposing new neighborhood bars, counts 100 restaurants with liquor licenses on the South Side, 64 on East Carson, said Bruce Krane, the task force chairman.

Neither the state nor local zoning rules address the issue of saturation. If a liquor license comes from within the county, it can transfer to any property zoned for a bar. Short of LCB denial, opponents' only recourse is in the courts.

"Economic development was a success," said state Rep. Harry Readshaw, who represents the South Side from 10th to 26th streets, where most of the bars are. "Now we're reaping the negatives.

"Changes at the state level would take years," he said, "and the South Side doesn't have time to wait for that to happen. By then, we could have wall-to-wall bars."

He said the quickest remedy might be "for the city to come up with something," such as requirements about parking or distances between bars.

City Councilman Jeffrey S. Koch, who represents the South Side, said he has asked zoning administrator Jeremy Smith to investigate ways the city might limit bar incidence and offer residents more influence in the process.

"The South Side is still a residential area," he said, "and most people who come in down there don't look at it that way, or couldn't care less."

The proposed bar sits beside Eljay's Used Books, whose co-owner, Frank Oreto, found something positive in the prospect: "It beats having an empty building. We've been here for nine years and it's been empty at least that long."

On the other hand, the window glass of his store has been broken several times by marauding drunken youths, he said.

"I think everyone's has," said Mr. Oreto.

"Oh yeah," said Renee Du Pree, who owns and lives in the building where she operates Groovy, a 12-year-old toy store. "Sometimes four times a year. There's a certain amount of give and take I can tolerate, because it's part of city living. But the bars are killing me."

In a recent letter to the LCB, Dr. Mary Ann Sevick complained of her home being vandalized, of broken glass on the sidewalk, of being awakened by noise from crowds leaving the bars and of "regularly" catching people urinating in her garden.

Mary Borowski, a resident for 56 years, said she and her friend Matthew Mikrut used to walk along Carson in the evenings, "but now you can't. And you can't leave your windows open in the summer."

Mr. Mikrut, a South Side resident for all of his 79 years, said, "For about five years, it's been unbearable. The living is gone from South Side. We pay taxes and live in hell."