[What you need to know to start your day: Get New York Today in your inbox]

For parts of his tenure, Mayor Bill de Blasio has been criticized for straying from his progressive roots, with some of his loyal supporters accusing him of failing to deliver on promises to help the homeless, or advance criminal justice reforms.

Those grumblings turned into a full-throated roar this week, with the mayor’s enthusiastic backing of a billion-dollar incentive deal to bring Amazon to Long Island City, Queens.

How could the liberal mayor of New York City who vowed to end the “tale of two cities” — one rich, the other poor — support this sort of development?

The short answer, said some real estate developers and former political aides, is that he almost always has.