In Crown Heights, a low

Rather than accept a sweetheart development deal that was set to pay for itself, the City Council just put taxpayers on the hook for $50 million. All so that anti-gentrification agitators gone wild can trade high-fives for having chased dreaded market-rate condos out of a Brooklyn neighborhood and knocked rents downward.

Years back, residents of Crown Heights saw in the hulking, dilapidated, city-owned BedfordUnion Armory the potential for a badly needed recreation center, with a pool, indoor basketball courts and more. They also need more affordable housing; don’t we all?

The winning proposal to the city Economic Development Corp., from developer Don Capoccia, checked all the boxes.

It would have graced the neighborhood with the athletic facility the community craved.

Delivered nearly 400 apartments, about 150 of them affordable, including 56 condominiums, the sale of which would throw off cash to subsidize the project.

And provide, with below-market rents, space for local non-profits to run their operations.

If only local elected officials had left well enough alone. Instead, parochial politics poisoned the water, par for the course in today’s New York.

Under the Council’s insane practice, local representatives get veto power over many projects in their districts. In this case, that gave inordinate leverage to Councilmember Laurie Cumbo.

At first Cumbo was all in favor. Then local activists and a primary election challenger, declaring the development a gentrification monster, got to her. At which point Cumbo ordered all condos erased from the blueprints before she’d even consider granting her consent.

And insisted that the affordable rental units weren’t affordable enough; the rents had to come down, down, down, or she’d withhold her okay.

Demand upon demand now necessitate $50 million in city subsidy. Every penny will come from tapped-out taxpayers — when on-site condo buyers and market-rate renters could have financed the whole shebang.

With public funds in short supply — and needed to support actual public housing, among other things — replacing perfectly green private dollars with taxpayer cash makes no sense. Unless you’re a local lawmaker.

The City Council made their bed. Bedraggled taxpayers have to sleep in it.