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. amNewYork has reached out to Valdez for comment.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates
