Not exactly. North Philly is worse off than the South Bronx right now (tons of abandoned homes, addicts, etc) to put it into perspective for you. It's still rough but not like it was in the 1970's and 80's. In fact, they are attempting to gentrify the area now. Some realtors are trying to call it "SoBro", like SoHo in Manhattan. Was the documentary "80 Blocks from Tiffanys"?