Wednesday, Feb. 27, marked the 58th day of Zohran Mamdani’s term as mayor. amNewYork is following Mamdani around his first 100 days in office as we closely track his progress on fulfilling campaign promises, appointing key leaders to government posts, and managing the city’s finances. Here’s a summary of what the mayor did.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Friday defended his surprise Oval Office pitch to President Donald Trump to revive the long-stalled development of Sunnyside Yards, casting it as a necessary step to confront the city’s affordability crisis — even as the local council member whose district would host the project accused him of sidelining the community.
The remarks came less than 24 hours after Mamdani’s unannounced trip to Washington, where he proposed partnering with the Trump administration on a roughly $21 billion plan to deck over Queens railyard and build 12,000 new homes — half of them under the Mitchell-Lama program — alongside parks, child care centers, and other infrastructure.
Speaking at the Weeksville Heritage Center in Brooklyn, where he was marking the completion of restoration work on the historic Hunterfly Road Houses, Mamdani described the sit-down as “a productive meeting.”
He added: “I proposed working together to build more than 12,000 new homes in our city, which would the single largest housing development New York City has seen since 1973.”
Mamdani said Trump signaled openness to the idea. “The president shared his interest in the proposal, and I am encouraged by the fact that we will continue to talk about this proposal,” he said.
Later, when pressed on what assurances he received, Mamdani responded: “He said that he was interested and that the conversation would continue.”
The mayor framed the project as a generational undertaking.
“This will take many, many years,” Mamdani said. “However, we are not daunted by the length of the project.”
He also emphasized why he brought the idea directly to Washington.
“The city cannot build on these rail yards without the approval and direction of the federal government,” he said, adding that the project would require the federal government to shift policies related to bond caps and risk-sharing, calling those changes “impossible for the city to do on its own.”
Queens lawmaker to Mamdani: Not so fast
City Council Member Julie Won, who represents Sunnyside, sharply criticized the mayor’s move in a statement released Thursday, saying that any proposal that reshapes Sunnyside Yards must begin with the neighbors who live here.
“One day after President Trump’s State of the Union, where he attacked and degraded our immigrants and trans communities, the mayor opted to meet with the president, re-proposing a failed housing project in my district,” Won said.
Won noted that six years ago, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, State Sen. Michael Gianaris and her predecessor helped end a prior version of the plan, and said there are currently “no public approvals in place for this project.”
“City Hall should commit to a ULURP process with the Council and the community for such a significant change for a project of this scale,” Won said. While she said she welcomes “the opportunity to build more deeply affordable housing and other federal investments,” she added that “it cannot be done behind closed doors unilaterally.”
In 2015, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio first suggested building on the site. Five years later, in 2020, the city and Amtrak, the federal agency that owns the majority of the site, released a long-awaited “Sunnyside Yard Master Plan.”
The master plan called for the creation of 100% affordable housing, including 12,000 homes, 60 acres of new open space, equitable home-ownership opportunities, the long-sought Sunnyside Station, and necessary infrastructure and other public amenities.
During Thursday’s press conference, Mamdani said that there had been “a few conversations” with elected officials, labor groups, and local organizers, and stressed that more outreach would be done.
“Those conversations will continue, because this is a long-standing project that will also require a long-standing commitment, and we’re just at the very beginning of it,” he said.
The mayor also acknowledged that his approach to Trump has drawn scrutiny, given the sharp rhetoric during the campaign, but defended the outreach.
“The President and I have many disagreements, which we share publicly and we share privately,” he said. “And I also said on that same campaign trail that I would be willing to work with anyone, no matter disagreements, so long as it was to the benefit of the city that we love.”
The new mayor’s approach to the Trump administration earned him praise from his predecessor, Eric Adams, a longtime critic.
“Rhetoric is easy. Governing is harder. Glad to see [Mayor] Mamdani move away from the ‘leading the resistance’ talk and follow in my footsteps by working with President [Trump] for the good of New York City,” Adams said.
Earlier this month, Won entered the congested congressional race to succeed U.S. Rep. Nydia Velázquez in New York’s 7th Congressional District. Among the candidates she is facing off against is the Mamdani-backed Assembly Member, Claire Valdez, who currently represents AD37, which encompasses the Sunnyside Yards.
After Mamdani’s Oval Office meeting, Valdez, on social media, praised the mayor for securing the release of the Columbia University student who was arrested by ICE agents in her dorm building earlier that morning. But she did not mention the proposed development in her district.
In response to a query from amNewYork, AM Valdez was more supportive of the potential project than Won but stressed that further details on the plans and local input are needed moving forward.
“There’s no question that meeting the scale of the housing crisis will require federal investment, and Sunnyside Yards is an opportunity to not only build a significant number of affordable homes, but also to deliver major mass transit improvements and create much-needed new public space,” said Valdez. “Details matter here, as does neighborhood input. I very much look forward to hearing more from the mayor and being an active participant in this process as it unfolds.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who represents the district encompassing Sunnyside Yards and is a progressive ally of Mamdani, also signaled cautious engagement with the proposal, with her office calling the federal investment under consideration “transformational.”
“The Congresswoman looks forward to working with the mayor to expand the supply of affordable housing in New York and lower rents across the city,” AOC’s press secretary Karla Santillan said.
The Congress Member for the Bronx and Queens has a prickly past with the project. In 2020, AOC resigned from the Sunnyside Yards Steering Committee, citing concerns that constituent and community input, particularly on affordability, public space, and protections against displacement, had not been meaningfully incorporated.
Mayor cuts ribbon on restored Weeksville Homes
Mayor Mamdani on Friday cut the ribbon on the restored Hunterfly Road Houses at the Weeksville Heritage Center, marking the completion of a nearly $4 million project preserving four 19th-century homes from one of the nation’s oldest free Black communities.
The houses in Crown Heights are the only surviving residential structures from Weeksville, a community founded in 1838 by former slave James Weeks that thrived as a hub for African Americans after New York State abolished slavery in 1827.
The community, which grew to around 500 residents by the 1850s, had its own churches, schools, businesses, and even a newspaper, The Freedman’s Torchlight. However, as Brooklyn’s development expanded, Weeksville began to fade, and much of it was forgotten by the 1960s.
In 1968, four houses on Hunterfly Road were rediscovered, leading to efforts by historian James Hurley, Joseph Haynes, and Pratt Institute students to preserve the structures, which were threatened with demolition. The houses were designated New York City landmarks in 1970 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. Today, the site remains the only African American historic site in the Northeast, located on its original property.
Construction to preserve the homes began in the fall of 2024 and wrapped earlier this month. The restoration included siding, windows, doors, porches, plumbing, lighting, fire alarms, and a climate-controlled storage room for historical artifacts.
“Weeksville tells the story of Black New Yorkers who built freedom for themselves in a country that tried to deny them it,” said Mayor Mamdani. “It was a sanctuary that offered safety, dignity, and opportunity in the face of economic injustice and systemic racism. It was nearly erased by urban renewal. By restoring the Hunterfly Road Houses, we are preserving not just historic buildings but a living legacy of resilience and self-determination.”
Assembly Member Latrice Walker presented a $2 million check to the Weeksville Heritage Center to support the renovation of the cultural arts building and the Hunterfly Road Houses. “On behalf of the New York State Assembly, the $2 million in capital funds will help to build on the success of this center, especially in its efforts to preserve the history of Weeksville, one of the largest free Black communities in the pre–Civil War era,” she said.
Health: Expansion of early childhood mental health programs
Later in the day, Mamdani announced that the New York City Health Department will receive a $20 million investment over three years to expand the Strong Foundations initiative, a program supporting perinatal and early childhood mental health.
The funding, included in the Fiscal Year 2026 budget, will allow the NYC Nurse-Family Partnership to serve parents with more than one child and enroll families later in pregnancy. It will also increase access to mental health resources for parents and young children, expand training for early childhood mental health professionals, and establish a three-year fellowship to grow the workforce.
“The cost-of-living crisis hits New York City families well before the birth of their kids, which is why our administration is stepping up assistance through Strong Foundations,” Mamdani said. “All parents deserve access to high-quality prenatal and perinatal care, and today’s announcement ensures families face fewer barriers at the very beginning of their child’s life.”
The initiative will provide registered nurses with additional training and supplies, including pack-and-plays, diapers, and developmental toys. It will also expand staffing at Perinatal and Early Childhood Mental Health Network clinics and fund specialized mental health certification for 20 practitioners annually.
