The film is a meditation on the fifty-year history of SoHo, a New York City neighborhood on the precipice of change. Famous throughout the world as an artists’ community, SoHo flourished because of a 1971 rezoning that legalized artists’ live-work lofts. But a new rezoning in 2021 increases development opportunities and threatens the area’s historic architecture. Planners say rezoning brings affordable housing and racial equity to this now affluent neighborhood. Residents see it as a giveaway to developers and fear it will destroy the area’s distinctive character. Through intimate access to long-established artists’ lofts, SoHo in Flux traces how these spaces of creativity turned cultural capital into real estate capital, while conversations with art dealers highlight the supercharged art market that attracted investors. As activists connect SoHo’s rezoning to the global “Yes In My Back Yard”/”Not In My Back Yard” (YIMBY/NIMBY) debate, an architect and a developer try to resolve the conflicting demands of the city and the community.

Alice Arnold is a documentary media maker and educator. Her film and photography projects explore the urban environment and visual culture, from street art to advertising, and from sidewalks to electric signs. Her films are in the collections of university libraries and have screened at The Museum of Modern Art and other festivals. Her photographs of nightlife, hip hop culture, and portraits have been widely exhibited and published in books and magazines, including, Goldie, Timeless (Cafe Royal Books, 2022). Arnold’s photography book about club culture is forthcoming. Her work has been included in exhibitions such as the Castile and Leon International Photography Festival (Spain, 2023) and Manarat Al Saadiyat/Sole DXB (Dubai, 2020). She is a New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Photography Fellow (2003); a Fulbright Fellow (Film, Hong Kong, 2007); and an adjunct professor at the City University of New York.

Sharon Zukin is an urban sociologist whose work documents how culture and capital shape contemporary cities. Her book Loft Living (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982) is the classic account of SoHo’s postindustrial transformation, a critical approach that extends through Landscapes of Power: From Detroit to Disney World (University of California Press, 1993), winner of the C. Wright Mills Award; The Cultures of Cities (Blackwell, 1995); Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places (Oxford University Press, 2010), winner of the Jane Jacobs Award for Urban Communication; and The Innovation Complex (Oxford University Press, 2020); as well as After the Trade Center: Rethinking New York City (Routledge, 2002), edited with Michael Sorkin; and Global Cities, Local Streets (Routledge, 2016), edited with Philip Kasinitz and Xiangming Chen. Zukin’s books have been translated into nine other languages. She is professor emerita of sociology and of earth and environmental sciences at Brooklyn College and the Graduate School of the City University of New York and has been a visiting professor at universities in Amsterdam, Sydney, and Shanghai.