‘Closing’ of the progressive mind

If a cherished criminal-justice-reform dream of New York progressives — closing down the arcane and often inhumane jail complex on Rikers Island — collapses, they will have to blame not tough-on-crime prosecutors or judges or Republicans, but some of their own closest political allies.

It is the arrogant missteps and utopian idealism of a handful of left-wing New Yorkers that now poses a clear and present threat to a project many of these very same New Yorkers insist is a moral imperative.

In the former category, we put Mayor de Blasio and Council Speaker Corey Johnson’s rushed decision last August to put one of five modern, new borough jails — actually, four, after Staten Island was stupidly ruled out — in a residential neighborhood in Mott Haven, on a site long intended for affordable housing, rather than on another available site far closer to the Bronx County courthouse.

At the time, given that local pols seemed

lined up in favor, the Mott Haven site looked like the path of least resistance. But then members of the community, worried about guarding hard-won progress against crime and wise to how the proposed location failed pols’ own tests, revolted.

Thursday, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. added his voice to the opposition.

If that winds up sinking the plan, it’s on de Blasio and Johnson for picking the wrong site and shutting the public out of the process.

A second progressive threat arises in Queens, where Tiffany Cabán, embroiled in a recount, still could end up the next Queens district attorney. Should she succeed, her uberprogressive promise of “no new jails” would likely embolden those looking to block a modern new facility in Kew Gardens.

If Queens and the Bronx are back to square one, or off the table, you can kiss closing Rikers within 10 years goodbye.