This has not been a good month for Mayor Bloomberg. His congestion traffic tax plan has been stalled by the Assembly, and more mayors are defecting from his anti-gun group. Although he has denied any 2008 presidential ambitions, his potential candidacy is not causing much excitement around the country. I’ve seen unflattering comments on numerous Internet forums ranging from, “Who’s Michael Bloomberg?” to “5-feet-7, my eye.” My suggestion to the mayor: “You need a new attitude.”

Had the mayor managed to subdue his natural eau de arrogance and exhibited a tad more humility, perhaps these decisions could be considered less of a personal disappointment. Unfortunately, recent statements by the mayor show an individual who is quite removed from the common man. He may ride the subway in the early morn, but when regular riders were trapped for 48 minutes in late afternoon in sweltering heat due to an electrical outage, the mayor called it a “minor inconvenience.” When the news of a thwarted terrorist attack near JFK airport hit the airwaves, he told us all to stop worrying and “Get a life.” When his congestion tax met resistance in Albany, he blasted the legislators for their lack of guts and leadership. Oh my: How not to win friends and influence people. The truth about the congestion traffic tax plan is that it made absolutely no sense. It’s not the drivers who are causing the gridlock; it’s the enormous amount of construction in Midtown and downtown Manhattan. A lane of traffic is always closed to allow construction equipment in and out of the sites, and this creates bottlenecks everywhere. This is especially apparent near Battery Park, where the new transportation hub is being built. Which decade it will be completed in is anybody’s guess, but congestion in that area has become routine.

My son, who’s a FedEx courier based in Midtown, says such construction sites are all over the city, creating monstrous traffic jams during the daytime. Has the idea of staggering the work hours so they don’t coincide with normal city traffic occurred to anyone? Of course not. Taxation’s always the solution to bureaucrats; however, a tax on individual cars will not generate the revenue that Bloomberg anticipates and would certainly hurt service workers traveling to their jobs.

As for Mr. Bloomberg’s anti-gun campaign, the latest defector — the mayor of Oldmans Township, N.J., Harry Moore — explains the reason that it’s crashing in a July 7 letter: “I joined your coalition because of its purported purpose to combat the criminal acquisition and misuse of guns, which is a goal shared by all Americans. Regrettably, it has become abundantly clear to me that you are using this coalition of mayors to advance a hidden agenda of bringing lawsuits against members of the firearms industry and spreading antigun propaganda.”

In March, The New York Sun reported that another disenchanted mayor, Mary Wolf of Williamsport, Pa., had withdrawn from Mayors Against Illegal Guns because she thought it was attempting to erode all gun ownership, not just illegal guns. The owner of a Williamsport firing range and gun dealership, Frank Tripoli, said, “We live in a community that is a hunting, fishing, and shooting sports-focused group of people. I think a lot of people wrote to the mayor.”

As more mayors hear from their constituents and respond to their needs, it is highly likely that there will be more withdrawals. It’s heartening to know that there are some community leaders who listen to the people who elected them. New Yorkers aren’t so lucky, as our wishes never seem to be heeded. Still, there are some hardy souls who are geared to do battle with this administration.

Under Mr. Bloomberg, the Department of Education has established two public schools — one Greek and one Arabic — that challenge the divide between church and state. For the past five years, the Bronx Household of Faith, has conducted Sunday morning services out of Public School 291, but now has been banned from doing so. A co-leader of the inner city congregational church, Robert Hall, has vowed to appeal the ruling. In an interview with the New York Daily News, Hall pointed to the Khalil Gibran International Academy as an example of how the DOE is inconsistent in its rulings on who may use its space. He said his church was being singled out and added, “You cannot separate Arabic culture from Islam. Here we are in the fall, ready to have a publicly-funded religious school.” An education department spokeswoman denied this, but Mr. Hall promised to pursue the matter through the courts.

As I said — not a good month for the mayor.