After the riots in the 1960s there were many folks who thought the same way you did—that “the fix was in” and some folks would get rich buying property on the cheap.
This was a theme in the classic cop show “The Shield” where a senior police official stopped law enforcement in one part of town, then bought real estate on the cheap, and then restarted law enforcement to improve the area so he could make a killing.
Meanwhile in the real world...buyers ended up with huge property taxes they could or would not pay and the banks/mortgage holders ended up with the properties.
In our area Hartford, CT was declared to be “the rising star” for decades.
That siren call crushed developer after developer.
Throughout New England failing cities every 15 years would all get cute new streets lamps funded by federal dollars and proceed to bankrupt anyone foolish enough to invest.