Camden was a great place in the first half of the 20th century. Headquarters to Campbell Soup and RCA Victor, two huge companies, as well as many smaller ones. Employment was high, life was good. That is until two things happened. First in the 20s/30s they decided to build the Ben Franklin Bridge right through the heart of the wealthiest neighborhood and that caused all the rich to find other places to live. It became a decidedly working class place, but still nice and safe. Then the 60s and 70s came. Race riots sent nearly every white person in the city packing, including business owners. The city was dead from that point on. When your city loses all the rich people then all the working people, it's never good.
Lesson learned should be that if you want to bring prosperity and good living conditions to the poor, protect and grow your middle class community. You can live without the rich if you have to, but if you lose the working class it's all over.