The triangle at Second Avenue and Germantown Boulevard is emblematic of the gentrification of the Northern Liberties: The Mega Piazza complex is rising as a centerpiece, surrounded by restaurants and sparkling new apartments.

But neighbors say a permanent pile of garbage growing every week on the sidewalk in front of one of these new complexes is marring the view. The stack stands in front of a wide protected bike lane that separates from the main sidewalk. So it looks like the garbage is almost in the middle of the street.

The pile has become a North-South problem: The Northern Liberty Triangle, where residents dump trash there, and the Southern Liberty Triangle, which residents object to, are two projects built by the same developer and managed by the same company.

“We’re really worried about rodents and bugs,” said Natalie Palencia, who lives in South Liberty Triangle on Germantown Boulevard. “Many of us are suddenly having problems with drain flies. We are worried that they may proliferate among all the garbage that comes from the sewers and accumulates. “I’ve been here for almost two years and we’ve only had these problems since the dumping started.”

Stray trash is definitely a big problem in much of Philly. But neighbors say the ubiquitous pile, which started this year, is an eyesore because it still exists even though city workers clean it up every week. Neighbors complained on social media, stating that the pile regrew like a lizard’s tail shortly after it was collected. Someone erected a sign saying “A Bag of Your Trash Sets the Trend.”

Garbage often falls out of broken plastic bags.

Municipal teams collect it every Friday, but the pile comes back in a short time. Frustrated neighbors say they reported their complaints to 311. However, every time municipal teams arrive, these complaints are marked as resolved. Then the pile seen on weekdays reappears.

The municipality is working on this

Northern Triangle of Freedom It is a new 85-unit apartment project offering a fitness center, courtyard, parking lot, balcony views and commercial retail, according to its website. It’s unclear how many of these units put their trash on the pile.

Both the North and South Liberty complexes were developed by Philly-based Streamline, which specializes in urban infill projects. Malvern-based RowCal manages both complexes. RowCal did not respond to The Inquirer’s requests for comment.

Anne Kelly, council member Mark Squilla’s chief of staff, said the office is aware of the situation and is working with the Northern Freedom Triangle on a solution. But he said the complex and its trash fall into a gray area.

Under city rules, some small businesses and multi-unit properties can opt to have the city pick up their trash and recycling for a fee. Or owners may hire private movers. The city offers free weekly trash and recycling pickup for condos and co-ops, no matter how many units there are in the building.

“This was more challenging than we thought,” Kelly said. “This property is unique in that there are 20 individual addresses on this parcel and although it is listed as condos, it has shared exits.”

He is working with the city’s legal department “to determine eligibility for collections and/or designated collection areas, as property with such common exit points is not automatically eligible for collections.”

Kelly said the office is working with the city’s sanitation commissioner, Crystal Jacobs Shipman, to “identify appropriate collection points for this property.”

Garbage stored in the bike room

South Liberty Triangle, just across the street, throws some of its trash out to the curb, but only on garbage day, according to Evan Williams, a board member of the complex’s Homeowners Association (HOA).

He said the Southern Freedom Triangle faced a similar situation but found a solution. The developer’s original plan called for using unfinished basements to store trash, Williams said. However, the HOA thought this could lead to rodents, pests or health problems.

So the Southern Triangle of Liberty began using a room reserved for bicycle storage. The bike room now primarily holds trash collected by a private hauler paid for by the HOA. Residents leave any remaining trash or recyclables at the curb starting at 7 p.m. on Thursday to be collected on Friday.

Williams blames the city for not requiring developers to file garbage disposal plans.

“We’ve had a really hard time with our building’s trash, but the North Liberty triangle complex across the street is much, much larger than ours, and so I assume they have some of the same challenges, but just on a larger scale.” ” said Williams. “We kind of figured it out for our community. It looks like their situation has gotten worse.”

‘Recipe for disaster’

Williams calls storing trash in unfinished rooms, as in the original plan, a “recipe for disaster.” But the HOA doesn’t want to pile trash on the curb, so it continues to use the bike room and private collection, which costs several hundred dollars a month.

“When I moved in, they told all 43 apartment owners in our building that the garbage plan was to throw their trash out on the street for the city to pick up, which seems absolutely crazy to me,” Williams said. “When we relied on city trash pickup, our entire sidewalk was full of trash.”

Williams estimates he sent 100 tickets to the city’s 311 system regarding the pile-up, but to no avail.

“Just like being a nice neighbor, you shouldn’t throw your trash there,” Williams said. “They start taking out the garbage on Friday afternoons, just a few hours after the weekly city pickup, so it sits there for a whole week, falling apart and flying everywhere.”