“And it’s been that way since before 1978, that I know of.”
Yes, and somehow bringing the battleship (which serves as a Philadelphia tourist attraction) was going to fix it.
Just as first the Newark Bears stadium, then the Prudential Center, were going to do the same thing for Newark (I do find it ironic that Newark has lost their basketball team while they now have a hockey team). Wholesale gentrification is the only solution to these problems; nobody is going to build (or rebuild) a nice house, or invest in a business, when the locusts are blocks away.
Asbury Park also comes to mind, since they recently demolished a half-built tower that 10+ years ago was hailed as a sign of their renaissance when they started building it.