Can they really be so dumb to truly believe what they are saying? Or is this just simply more nonsensical happy talk on part of our local pols?

That was my reaction upon hearing early last week that Gov. Charlie Baker, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and other local political leaders are leaving the “door open,” as a couple headlines put it, should Amazon bail on its HQ2 plans for New York after running into fierce opposition.

A few days later, the company cancelled plans for the New York half of the project, saying it would focus on the Nashville and Virginia locations picked in the HQ2 search process.

Amazon chief Jeff Bezos is capable of doing some pretty stupid things for someone so brilliant, as his cringingly well-documented affair with a former TV news anchor attests.

But fleeing the meanies in New York, all so he can watch his massive Amazon headquarters plans slowly expire over the course of a thousand “neighborhood meetings” in NIMBY Boston, is not one of them.

Scott Van Voorhis

$3B Giveaway Stokes NYC Anger

Amazon had planned to move into a 680-foot tower in rough-and-ready Long Island City, an industrial neighborhood in Queens that is also home to the nation’s largest public housing complex.

The online retailer and tech giant would also have been able to spread out from that initial 1.5 million square foot complex into the neighborhood’s commercial core and out along its waterfront as well.

In addition to being within a reasonably short hop on the subway from Manhattan, the neighborhood is relatively cheap – for New York that is – with rents in the $29- to $49-per-square foot range.

In exchange for $3 billion in subsidies, grants and other goodies, courtesy of New York taxpayers, Amazon has agreed to create 25,000 new jobs.

Progressive groups and politicians angry about the lavish corporate subsidies, unions incensed by Amazon’s anti-labor policies and neighborhood activists fearful of the potential for gentrification and rising rents are all doing their best to make life miserable for their erstwhile new neighbor.

Newly elected Democratic star U.S. Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez sounded off, while opponents packed City Council hearings, waving placards emblazoned with “Amazon Lies” and other notes of affection.

Foes of Amazon’s would-be Queens headquarters have also managed to cleverly outmaneuver supporters: state Sen. Michael N. Gianaris, D-Queens, got nominated to an obscure state board with oversight over the project, a move that had the potential to deliver the finishing blow.

HQ2 Would Face Death by Neighborhood Meeting

After the mess in New York, I don’t know why any local politician here would think Bezos would seriously consider shifting his headquarters to Boston or, for that matter, would want to leave door open, even if it’s just a crack, to such a calamitous possibility, however remote.

Maybe our otherwise savvy governor thinks his stance against an outright subsidy for Amazon would shield the proposal from the kind of explosive public criticism the tech giant has drawn in New York for its hefty, $3 billion taxpayer-financed package.

In remarks in which he laid once again laid out a welcome mat for Amazon, Baker noted the state would not chip in beyond improving infrastructure.

“If they were to choose to decide that they wanted to expand their footprint here, obviously we would be open to having those discussions,” Baker told the Boston Business Journal. “But in the end, our view is that the best way for us to provide support for that is through public betterments that everybody benefits from.”

But opposition to major development deals is never so tidily logical in Boston – or anywhere in Massachusetts.

Our particularly virulent strain of NIMBYism does not always flare up in the presence of corporate giveaways. Rather, the trigger is often just the simple act of proposing to build something and the change it will bring, whether it’s new housing and new neighbors or a commercial project that will bring in workers and commuters.

If in Queens they got mad over a $3 billion corporate giveaway, in South Boston there is equal if not greater fury over a proposal to turn a dirty, defunct power plant into 1,300 new apartments and condos.

There’s no good reason why, except it represents change and the prospect of new neighbors, likely some of different backgrounds, moving in next door.

Clearly Amazon wants not just taxpayer dollars, but lots of love as well from the city it ultimately builds its second headquarters in, whether it’s New York, or as is now increasingly possible, somewhere else.

“The question is whether it’s worth it if the politicians in New York don’t want the project, especially with how people in Virginia and Nashville have been so welcoming,” one person “familiar with the company’s thinking” told the Washington Post, which is owned by Bezos.

Bezos surely gets it. He’s smart enough to realize he won’t find that kind of love in Boston.

Too bad our governor isn’t.

Scott Van Voorhis is Banker & Tradesman’s columnist; opinions expressed are his own. He may be reached at sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com.