Source: Politics<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The Sunnyside Yard project landed back in the headlines yesterday when Mamdani and President Donald Trump emerged from a chummy meeting at Gracie Mansion<\/a> to announce they\u2019d agreed to bring conversations about the long-stalled housing plan to \u201ca new level.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n But Council member Julie Won \u2014 who represents Sunnyside and voiced concerns in February about not being included in the talks \u2014 said today she continues to be troubled by the fact that the mayor and the president aren\u2019t consulting her or other local community voices.<\/p>\n \u201cSince 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,\u201d Won said in a statement. \u201cThere 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Farah Salam, Won\u2019s chief of staff, said City Hall\u2019s continued lack of engagement with her office flies in the face of a commitment Mamdani\u2019s team made in February.<\/p>\n Salam recounted how, in a meeting with Won\u2019s team at the time, Mamdani aides told the Council member\u2019s staff they would keep them in the loop on any Sunnyside Yard-related updates. Nonetheless, Salam told Playbook that Won and her team haven\u2019t heard a peep from Mamdani\u2019s administration since then, and she added that Won only learned of the latest twist from watching Mamdani\u2019s post-meeting press conference with Trump yesterday.<\/p>\n A Mamdani spokesperson declined to respond to Salam\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n Won is a member of the Council\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Won isn\u2019t the only local politician concerned by Mamdani\u2019s Sunnyside dealings with Trump, though.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not saying give up on Sunnyside Yard, but let\u2019s first move somewhere where we can actually get shovels in the ground now,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are in a housing emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n Richards also said he\u2019s skeptical Trump will actually make good on his Sunnyside musings. \u201cI have trepidations about how fast the Trump administration is going to move on this \u2014 forgive me if I have my trepidations about them,\u201d he said. \u201cAnything you deal with the Trump administration on has to be show and tell, and I don\u2019t have much confidence even with the president’s remarks yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI will do everything in my power to build more housing in this city,\u201d Mamdani said. \u201cAnd working with the president to fulfill an idea that has existed for 50 to 60 years \u2014 that to me is clearly an example of what could be done.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> because of the COVID pandemic and local pushback. \u2014 Chris Sommerfeldt and Joe Anuta\u00a0<\/p>\n IT GUY GONE: The top official at the state\u2019s Office of Information Technology Services was removed this week by Gov. Kathy Hochul after she lost confidence in him, her administration said today.<\/p>\n ITS Director Dru Rai held the job since September 2023, and his removal was effective immediately. Jenson Jacob will take over the role in an acting capacity. The office manages the state’s information technology, data centers and hardware infrastructure while providing digital services for state agencies and local governments.<\/p>\n \u201cThe administration has informed Dru Rai that the Governor no longer has confidence in his ability to effectively represent this administration and he was removed from his position as head of ITS,” a Hochul spokesperson said in a statement. “Jenson Jacob has been named Acting Director of ITS. Governor Hochul remains committed to holding employees to the highest leadership and ethical standards, and ITS will continue to deliver technology solutions and services for New Yorkers, our agencies and partners.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more from POLITICO Pro\u2019s Nick Reisman.<\/a><\/p>\n BLAKEMAN BRUSHES OFF GRACIE GATHERING: Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman is downplaying the significance of Trump\u2019s cordial Monday meeting<\/a> with the mayor.<\/p>\n \u201cNot at all,\u201d he said when asked if Trump\u2019s visit undercut Blakeman\u2019s focus on Mamdani\u2019s radicalism.<\/p>\n \u201cThe president is a government official. He\u2019s the highest government official in the United States. And the mayor\u2019s a government official, so I expect that the two of them would talk.\u201d<\/p>\n Blakeman has attacked the mayor he refers to as \u201cCommie Mamdani\u201d while campaigning in every corner of the state. Would he similarly meet with Mamdani? \u201cDepends what he was serving for lunch,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The Nassau County executive was in Albany today to receive the NYS Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association\u2019s endorsement. Prison guards have had an icy relationship with the state in recent years, due to Cuomo-era limits on solitary confinement and Hochul\u2019s strict crackdown on guards who engaged in an illegal strike last year.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the first time NYSCOPBA has endorsed a gubernatorial candidate.<\/p>\n \u201cKathy Hochul, I want you to think about that: 95 percent of your employees voted to endorse me, a democratic vote,\u201d Blakeman said. \u201cWhat does that say about your leadership? You should be embarrassed that 95 percent of your workers didn\u2019t think highly enough of you to endorse you.\u201d \u2014 Bill Mahoney<\/p>\n LEFT ON READ: City Council members \u2014 including the mayor\u2019s allies \u2014 laced into Mamdani\u2019s administration today at a Council hearing on the use of influencers in city government communications.<\/p>\n The central focus of their displeasure? Team Mamdani declined to send any representatives from the appropriate agencies to testify.<\/p>\n The oversight hearing comes on the heels of news<\/a> that programs run by city agencies paid influencers to promote city policies. The hearing\u2019s stated purpose: to begin to establish guidelines for how city officials communicate with influencers and disclose such communications.<\/p>\n Emilia Rowland, the mayor\u2019s director of new media, skipped the hearing, despite being invited to testify. Earlier this month, a working paper from the Columbia University Initiative for Policy Dialogue<\/a> reported that Rowland oversees a Signal group chat with more than 200 hand-picked influencers. In her place, the mayor\u2019s office sent Tascha Van Auken, commissioner of the mayor\u2019s Office of Mass Engagement, and Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz, commissioner for the Department of Records and Information Services \u2014 neither of whom had much to offer on the administration\u2019s use of influencers.<\/p>\n While pressing the two during their testimony, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams expressed disappointment that the communications officials who \u201cshould be here are not.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t know that anything was done wrong, but there were questions that were raised by this article that I believe the public should hear answers to, so that they can feel sure that nothing wrong occurred,\u201d Williams said. \u201cThe fact that the correct folks aren’t here doesn’t really help that story.\u201d<\/p>\n Williams, a progressive Democrat, found himself in agreement with Council Minority Leader David Carr, the Republican who sponsored legislation that would require explicit disclosures on city-funded or directed influencer communications.<\/p>\n Carr pressed Van Auken and Smith-Cruz on specifics about the relationship between City Hall and third-party influencers \u2014 such as the number of influencers the administration has worked with, how much has been spent on the social media campaigns, how budgets are determined and how influencers are selected.<\/p>\n Van Auken and Smith-Cruz acknowledged they didn\u2019t have fulsome answers to any of Carr\u2019s questions, in stark contrast with the mayor\u2019s characterization of the situation earlier today.<\/p>\n \u201cI am confident in the testimony that our administration is providing today, that it will be sufficient in answering the council’s questions,\u201d Mamdani told reporters this morning.<\/p>\n Taiwan Green, a Queens-based influencer with more than 50,000 followers, testified he was contacted a year ago by then-candidate Mamdani\u2019s social media team. He said he\u2019s never been offered pay for any content about the administration, though, and that he was never directed as to how to message his videos.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe it\u2019s my responsibility to sacrifice my time and my resources to educate myself and my followers on the political process,\u201d said Green, who goes by the handle @mrfingaz. \u201cTraditional press may not have the time to ask questions that are related to southeast Queens, but I will use this opportunity to do just that.\u201d<\/p>\n Green left abruptly after about 90 seconds of testimony and didn\u2019t take questions from council members.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t the first time relevant officials from the mayor\u2019s office skipped a Council oversight meeting. Last month, lawmakers slammed<\/a> Mamdani\u2019s administration for opting out of a hearing on the city\u2019s controversial pied-\u00e0-terre tax rollout. At that hearing, Council Members Gale Brewer and Linda Lee read out 11 pages of questions<\/a> to a row of empty chairs. \u2014 Molly Reinmann<\/p>\n SO MANY GAVELS: The city\u2019s Conflicts of Interest Board fined Council member Mercedes Narcisse $2,500 for filming a reelection campaign video inside City Hall.<\/p>\n In one portion of the video, Narcisse is sitting in the Council chambers at the speaker\u2019s chair, where she strikes a gavel. In another, she sits behind her nameplate in a separate committee room and \u2026 also strikes a gavel.<\/p>\n Narcisse is then filmed speaking (though not striking a gavel) at an official Council podium.<\/p>\n Because these areas of City Hall are off limits to the public, the board found Narcisee was using her government perch for personal gain. In a settlement agreement, the Brooklyn lawmaker said she did not intend to break the rules, but admitted wrongdoing. \u2014 Joe Anuta<\/p>\n AOC IN BUF: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is planning to hit Buffalo Thursday to meet with Mayor Sean Ryan and host an organizing training aimed at inactive voters.<\/p>\n The trip comes amid speculation about whether she\u2019ll run for the White House or Senate in 2028. In comments to The New York Times<\/a> published on Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez said she\u2019s thinking about how her identity will factor into the campaign she chooses to mount.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s an argument that some make that this is a very unique political window and, oftentimes in politics, you do only get one shot,\u201d she told the Times. \u201cAnd you don\u2019t \u2014 and just in life in general \u2014 life doesn\u2019t wait for you to be ready for things. Sometimes life just makes things ready for you.\u201d<\/p>\n The Buffalo trip is part of an upstate swing that is also set to include Syracuse and Ithaca, the Times reported last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ocasio-Cortez has been leaning into the curiosity<\/a> surrounding her next political endeavor \u2014 but said she\u2019s keeping her focus on the midterms as she stumps across the country<\/a> boosting candidates. \u2014 Madison Fernandez<\/p>\n TAKING THE STAGE: Candidates for governor, state attorney general and comptroller will debate next month.<\/p>\n Spectrum News NY1 announced Tuesday that Hochul and Blakeman will debate on Oct. 13. Attorney General Letitia James will face off against GOP challenger Saritha Komatireddy on Oct. 8, and Comptroller Tom DiNapoli and Republican Joseph Hernandez will debate on Oct. 1.<\/p>\n Each of the debates will air live at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n Playbook previously reported<\/a> that Hochul intended to debate Blakeman, even though she is not required to do so since her campaign declined to participate in the new public campaign finance system. \u2014 Madison Fernandez<\/p>\n \u2014 ZO + BIBI: Mamdani doubled down on his criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of his speech at the U.N. this week. (CNN<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u2014 SCHUMER ON AI: Sen. Chuck Schumer demanded Trump completely block China\u2019s access to U.S. artificial intelligence technology ahead of the president\u2019s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping tomorrow. (Punchbowl<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u2014 MENIN + THE MET: City Council Speaker Julie Menin expanded on her condemnation of the Met Gala\u2019s now-walked back decision to honor John Galliano, who has a history of racism and antisemitism. (New York Magazine<\/a>)<\/p>\n Missed this morning\u2019s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here<\/a>.<\/p>\nFrom the Capitol<\/h3>\n
FROM CITY HALL<\/h3>\n
FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL<\/h3>\n
IN OTHER NEWS<\/h3>\n