This is the story of two New Yorks. Made at a time when the city was experiencing unprecedented real estate development on the one hand and unforeseen displacement of population and deterioration on the other. The film contrasts the modern metropolis with its "golden age" from 1830-1930, with the participation of some of New York's leading political and cultural figures such as David Rockefeller, Edward Koch, Joseph Papp, Norman Mailer, Jane Jacobs, Donald Trump, Louis Auchincloss and Brooke Astor. EMPIRE CITY explores the precarious coexistence of the service-based midtown Manhattan corporate headquarters with the peripheral New York of undereducated minorities living in increasing alienation.