I had to travel to Philadelphia a few months ago. In its central shopping district, all its high-end stores were boarded up. It looked like Beirut. It didn't seem to faze the city's pedestrians who walked by like it was ordinary, whereas we stood there staring at all the boarded-up expensive shops like, Woah! Passers-by looked at us like we were the crazy ones: "You never saw boarded-up shopping districts before? Hicks!"
To your point about Democrat cities running roughshod over the rest of the state: I recently read a web article saying Pennsylvania is basically Trump Country, so how is its Supreme Court dominated by leftist socialists? That article said the Democrat politicos in Philadelphia & Pittsburgh quietly ensured their state Supreme Court elections occur in non-Presidential-Election years (the "off years"). I guess that's 2018, 2014, 2010, etc. The theory being most Republicans are so busy with their lives that they won't pay attention to "off-year" elections. Whereas Democrats are totally obsessed with politics 24/7/365, so they quietly "got out the vote" in those off-year elections. Result: Pennsylvania is basically Trump-Country but it's stuck with a Democrat-dominated state Supreme Court (5 leftists, only 2 Republicans). Shifty Democrats are quickly turning the U.S. into a socialist and sooner-than-we-think Marxist/Communist country. It's happening fast.
Your expansion of my statement is, in all likelihood absolutely true, but I would add that Philadelphia has a very well-earned reputation for being one of the most corrupt cities in the country and its reputation for election fraud is legendary.