I don’t see Philly as a dying city. Whatever dying happened was done by the mid-90s — the 70s and 80s were when a lot of industry fled. It’s more of a stagnant or only marginally improving city, but, yes, some neighborhoods did improve, following the general US trend toward re-urbanization.

And I don’t see the fact that the working class hasn’t been totally expunged from Philly as an altogether bad thing.