Opinion

A very strange way to woo Amazon

Does Mayor de Blasio really want Amazon to choose New York City for its second headquarters? Judging by his public comments, the answer is . . . well, we don’t really know.

And not just the mayor: Several other major local politicians seem less than enthusiastic about Amazon coming here, including Comptroller Scott Stringer, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and two leading candidates to become City Council speaker.

If that’s the case, why did the city even bother to submit a bid?

Gov. Cuomo sure wants to bring Amazon here: He’s dangling a package of state tax subsidies (i.e., your money) so huge, his aides won’t disclose just how big it is.

(Could it rival the $7 billion offer that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie just made? Well, Christie leaves office in less than 90 days, so it’s no fiscal skin off his back.)

One Bill de Blasio made the correct case for Amazon coming here: New York is “the global capital of commerce, culture and innovation,” with a vast talent pool of tech workers. But hours later another de Blasio told a town-hall meeting that online shipping venues like Amazon are “very destructive to communities.”

This after taking great pains to say he has never shopped at Amazon because he believes “in brick and mortar” stores — and urging his audience to do likewise.

Touting neighborhood stores, he said: “You need to spend your money there and not at Starbucks and not at other alternative places.”

Way to make the city’s case, Bill. (Starbucks, by the way, employs 8,000 New Yorkers and is heavily involved in local community events.)

Look, it’s good that the mayor champions local stores (if not local sports teams). And we like the fact that he refused on principle to offer Amazon city tax breaks.

But if you’re going to pitch the city as the home for a firm promising 50,000 new jobs, you have to at least sound like you mean it.