Organized inside, cut off outside
A district can be well organized within itself yet poorly connected to the economy and politics of the city around it. Its problem is not missing order but missing links to the wider system.
Poor does not mean disorganized
A poor neighbourhood can have a dense, orderly social structure of gangs, cliques and clubs, each with its own leaders and rules. What outsiders read as chaos is often a working system they cannot see from the outside.
Rackets and politics run through cliques
In such a district, local politics and illegal rackets are tied into the same street-corner clubs and cliques that organize everyday social life. Power flows through these informal groups rather than around them.