Mamdani and Trump face frosty reception in Queens over Sunnyside Yard plan

Mamdani and Trump face frosty reception in Queens over Sunnyside Yard plan - POLITICO

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Mamdani and Trump face frosty reception in Queens over Sunnyside Yard plan

By CHRIS SOMMERFELDT and JOE ANUTA

09/22/2026 05:00 PM EDT

Presented by

!President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speak to reporters at Gracie Mansion, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026, in New York.

*Mayor Zohran Mamdani faces criticism over excluding local officials from talks about developing Sunnyside Yard. | Demaree Nikhinson/AP*

**LOCAL INPUT:** Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing fresh backlash over sidelining key stakeholders from talks about developing thousands of housing units on top of a Queens rail yard.

The Sunnyside Yard project landed back in the headlines yesterday when Mamdani and President Donald Trump emerged from a chummy meeting at Gracie Mansion to announce they’d agreed to bring conversations about the long-stalled housing plan to “a new level.” The unlikely duo first announced at a White House meeting in February they were looking into reviving the project, which would be contingent on billions of dollars in federal funding and involve constructing a platform over the rail yard, on top of which 12,000 housing units would be built.

But Council member Julie Won — who represents Sunnyside and voiced concerns in February about not being included in the talks — said today she continues to be troubled by the fact that the mayor and the president aren’t consulting her or other local community voices.

“Since the last discussion on Sunnyside Yard months ago between the mayor and president there is no funding from Congress nor any public meetings to move this project forward,” Won said in a statement. “There is no federal, state, or city bill allocating funding for this project. There is still no timeline. Congress would have to fund it, and the State and City Legislature would have to approve it. Our neighbors in Sunnyside yet again were not part of yesterday’s conversation, and there still has been no meaningful engagement with the public.”

Farah Salam, Won’s chief of staff, said City Hall’s continued lack of engagement with her office flies in the face of a commitment Mamdani’s team made in February.

Salam recounted how, in a meeting with Won’s team at the time, Mamdani aides told the Council member’s staff they would keep them in the loop on any Sunnyside Yard-related updates. Nonetheless, Salam told Playbook that Won and her team haven’t heard a peep from Mamdani’s administration since then, and she added that Won only learned of the latest twist from watching Mamdani’s post-meeting press conference with Trump yesterday.

A Mamdani spokesperson declined to respond to Salam’s comments.

Won is a member of the Council’s Progressive Caucus, which has generally been supportive of the mayor, lending more weight to her Sunnyside-related rebuke. Still, she may have some political sour grapes with the mayor, given that she campaigned unsuccessfully this summer for Congress in a race that was ultimately won by Mamdani-endorsed Assemblymember Claire Valdez.

Won isn’t the only local politician concerned by Mamdani’s Sunnyside dealings with Trump, though.

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards told Playbook it would be more fruitful for Mamdani to focus on securing federal funding from Trump for housing developments where shovels can hit the ground on a short timeframe. Inevitably, Sunnyside Yard would need to go through years-long review and permitting processes before construction could begin, and Richards argued Jamaica and Long Island City are better suited for immediate, federally-backed projects, given that both areas recently underwent neighborhood-wide rezonings.

“I’m not saying give up on Sunnyside Yard, but let’s first move somewhere where we can actually get shovels in the ground now,” he said. “We are in a housing emergency.”

Richards also said he’s skeptical Trump will actually make good on his Sunnyside musings. “I have trepidations about how fast the Trump administration is going to move on this — forgive me if I have my trepidations about them,” he said. “Anything you deal with the Trump administration on has to be show and tell, and I don’t have much confidence even with the president’s remarks yesterday.”

When asked about the comments from Won and Richards at a press conference today, Mamdani avoided any direct response. Instead he simply reiterated the merits of the project, which he said would include a significant share of affordable housing.

“I will do everything in my power to build more housing in this city,” Mamdani said. “And working with the president to fulfill an idea that has existed for 50 to 60 years — that to me is clearly an example of what could be done.”

It remains to be seen how much Trump and Mamdani can actually get done on the Sunnyside project. Though they said yesterday their respective housing policy teams are initiating technical talks about the project, there are no funding commitments on the table, and local community concerns remain.

Former Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a plan in 2015 to build housing on top of Sunnyside Yard, but that iteration of the project never went anywhere because of the COVID pandemic and local pushback. ***— Chris Sommerfeldt and Joe Anuta***

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