Emergent City

When people talk about investment it can, of course, mean money but it can refer just as easily to time and energy. All of these are not only in evidence but also frequently working against one another in Kelly Anderson and Jay Arthur Sterrenberg’s absorbing documentary about the battle lines that were drawn around the gentrification of the waterfront area of Sunset Park in New York’s Brooklyn.

Although this is a very specific film in terms of its geographical area, its story of the decline of reasonably paid blue collar jobs and their replacement by lower wage employment in the service sector, developers’ interests in maximising profit and community activism in the face of rapidly changing conditions for residents are something that will be familiar to people not just in other parts of the US but worldwide.

Anderson and Sterrenberg’s immersive approach literally begins beneath the water of NYC’s Upper Bay – water is an element that is referenced more than once in a nod to the environmental concerns that many of the activists have in terms of improving the area for a sustainable future. This is just one of a set of interests at play around the development of a huge waterfront industrial complex, renamed Industry City, under the steerage of real estate management and investment firm Jamestown Properties, which has the clear intent of shepherding the area from its manufacturing past to an “innovation economy”.

The directors take a largely observational approach to the network of activism that surrounds all this, gaining impressive access to community groups including Uprose, a Latino-led grassroots organisation with an eye on the environment, and Brooklyn Community Board 7, which also represents the various interests of local residents, as well as following New York City Council member Carlos Menchaca as he and his team try to find a way to square the circle over Jamestown Properties’ contentious attempt to rezone the area to include hotels and retail. On the business side, they follow the then-CEO of Industry City Andrew Kimball as he makes a passionate case for his development.

Alongside this, Anderson and Sterrenberg also succeed in giving a good sense of the cultural vibrancy and diversity of the area, which has high numbers of Latino and Chinese residents. Additionally, they introduce a controlled number of facts and figures, so we can get a grip of the finances underpinning what Jamestown wants to do. There’s a simple equation lying at the bottom of this which is that, in terms of what you can make from a piece of land, residential beats commercial which, in turn, trumps manufacturing. While an influx of creatives and associated industries may rejuvenate an area in some ways, the downside is that those who have lived in a district for generations face being forced out as rents begin to rise sharply.

While there’s no doubt the directors have a sympathetic slant towards the community, this is a film that is interested in exploring all the angles. Anderson and Sterrenberg take us into hearings where, ironically, there is very little listening going on, and into community halls where the temperature is rising. Watching Menchaca and his team, however, also comes as a reminder that many politicians genuinely do want to engage and support the communities that they are elected by. A film that is as much about the importance of developing community connections and conversations as it is about the evolution of the land that they live on.

Reviewed on: 23 Apr 2025