A film essay contrasting 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, Donald Trump, Norman Mailer, Edward Koch, Jane Jacobs, Joseph Papp, Richard Ravitch, Herman Badillo, Louis Auchincloss and Brooke Astor. Empire City is the story of two New Yorks set in the early 1980s.
