This past Sunday mayoral hopeful Fernando Ferrer stopped at the Greater Highway Deliverance Temple in East Harlem and proceeded to rip the city’s policy of activating parking meters in busy commercial areas on Sundays, calling the practice “Pay to Pray.” Of course, attacking parking meters is as safe a bet as there is in politics. There are few advocates for more meters and the traffic agents that inevitably come along with them.

Unfortunately, also at the service were reporters, who must have left the former Bronx president wishing he had taken in “The Gates” one last time before they were dismantled.

The Post and the Daily News gave his remarks short shrift, but Newsday, The New York Sun, and the Times were remarkably in sync, reporting various embarrassing details of Mr. Ferrer’s “Bloody Sunday” campaign foray. The Newsday dispatch pointed out that of the 200 worshippers, 70 were tourists. They were expecting to render a bit more to God and hear less attacking of Caesar when they arrived at the church. Quoted was a nurse visiting from Kent, England, Teresa Ross: “I wasn’t expecting politics; it was like coming to Parliament. I don’t like the idea of all that in a church.” The Times also picked up on the tourist theme, noting that the foreigners, who came to hear gospel music, “exchanged slightly befuddled looks.”

The Times also focused on the parking meter theme, noting cattily that Mr. Ferrer had no personal problem with parking, since at the end of the service he took off in his chauffeured car. The dispatch noted that while the attacks on parking meters were “good for a few rounds of applause, it was unclear how much they would resonate with members of the church, several of whom said afterward that they never had difficulties with parking near the church.” Ouch!

This is reminiscent of an incident that took place during the summer of the campaign of 1997,when Mayor Giuliani was seeking re-election. Mr. Ferrer had already withdrawn, and was actively campaigning for the candidate of his choice, Ruth Messinger. Trying to create an economic development photo opportunity, Mr. Ferrer brought Ms. Messinger to the A.L. Bazzini Company in the South Bronx. The company is an importer and packager of nuts.

Mr. Ferrer had advocated for the company when it was forced to relocate from its home in TriBeCa. With a deal approved by Giuliani administration business development officials, 100 jobs were saved and the new factory opened in the Bronx. In a borough that was and is still bleeding jobs, this one small victory was played out over and over again. Whenever Mr. Ferrer needed to demonstrate his ability to lure industry, he used Bazzini as a backdrop. Even a Chinese trade delegation was brought there, probably expecting to see something major like an automobile plant, but instead wound up touring the nut factory.

As soon as Ms. Messinger, with Mr. Ferrer at her side, began railing at Mr. Giuliani (who was considered a shoo-in for another four-year term), the firm’s president, Rocco Damato, made it clear to reporters that his firm was grateful to the mayor for all of his help, as the red-faced Mr. Ferrer looked on as the cameras rolled. It is one thing to express your opinion. But for a politician, it doesn’t look too good when you are publicly rebuked.

My colleague at The Sun, Meghan Clyne, may have done Mr. Ferrer the most damage by offering the most extensive coverage of his rambling remarks as well as the incendiary musings of the other speakers on the program. Mr. Ferrer’s speech was, well, awful. He managed to quote from Martin Luther King Jr., the book of Matthew, and Ernest Hemingway.

To the overwhelmingly minority audience, he reprised his “two cities” campaign which has now been repackaged as “one great city.” Not clear is whether the poor and disenfranchised will join the city of “those that can afford multimillion dollar condos,” or if the more affluent New York will be taxed into submission by Mr. Ferrer’s view of New York as a city of dependency and government largesse.

Obsessed with the proposed West Side Stadium, Mr. Ferrer rhetorically asked whether the mother of a sick baby “wants a pediatrician or a punter.” What the connection between the two is unclear but my suggestion is that the mother avail herself of New York’s enormous health care infrastructure that has become our fastest growing public expenditure. What Mr. Ferrer never seems to get around to is how he intends to pay for the laundry list of new and expanded entitlements in a city where high taxes are crippling economic growth.

Introducing Mr. Ferrer was John Ruiz, running locally for City Council, who reminded those gathered that they were “in the trenches together … in the same foxhole together, going through the same lack of services together. The time for outrage is now.” Even more divisive were the remarks of Rev. Warren Abney, the executive director of the church’s outreach arm, the Metropolitan Community Development Corp., who reminded those assembled that “Harlem belongs to us. We’re going to go out and take it from the enemy. “This was eerily reminiscent of the Rev. Al Sharpton’s call to take back Harlem from “white interlopers,” an entreaty that many feel resulted in the fatal Freddy’s fire late in 1995. Hardly the path to “one great city.”