Alberto Serrano has declared war on the shock troops of gentrification: hipsters. He has chosen as his front line a part of the Bronx, specifically a stretch along Walton Avenue in the Mount Hope neighborhood, which — for now — is free from goofy bars, twee crochet sculptures and overpriced cafes. His weapon? A huge mural depicting a grand comic-strip battle of the hip versus the hopeful.  The idea had been brewing for a while as Mr. Serrano — known as Tito Na Rua, or “Tito on the Street,” in Rio de Janeiro, where he has lived since 2001 — was considering doing a big piece in his old Bronx neighborhood. But it stayed in the realm of imagination until he read about two recent events in the Bronx. First, local opposition to a temporary art exhibition in the old Bronx Borough Courthouse made him wonder if gentrification was afoot in an unexpected place. Then, last month, he was dumbstruck by a fancy party thrown by a luxury real-estate developer who is building two waterfront towers in the Port Morris section (which the developer proposed renaming the “piano district”).  “When I saw this thing with the piano district, I thought, This needs to be done,” Mr. Serrano, 37, said. “The theme was something I had already been thinking about, since in Rio they are doing the same thing. They are removing a lot of homes and doing urban renewal in preparation for the Summer Olympics.”  Decades ago, Herman Badillo, the former congressman and Bronx borough president, predicted it was inevitable that the South Bronx would be targeted by people priced out of Manhattan. Some laughed him off, but recent events have led some to wonder if he was prescient. Parts of Port Morris and Mott Haven have seen pockets of redevelopment that have attracted artists and others looking for affordable space. A city proposal to rezone a commercial and industrial stretch of Jerome Avenue to allow for new housing has stoked more fears.  Then, the announcement of the waterfront towers in Port Morris prompted nothing less than alarm, leading to several meetings among residents worried about gentrification in a borough where many people already feel they have to spend too much of their income on housing.  The Bronx borough president, Ruben Diaz Jr., insisted last week on “The Brian Lehrer Show” on WNYC that while he thought gentrification was bad — and voted against Mayor Bill de Blasio’s rezoning initiative — the process had not occurred in any of the 14 areas that his office had rezoned since 2009. But housing advocates have said they have seen tenants harassed by landlords in some of the areas targeted for new development.  Mr. Serrano chose to place his mural in an area he thought was, for now, undiscovered by the funny hat and facial hair crowd. “I thought this was a safe part of the borough,” he said. “You don’t see too many people from downtown going past Yankee Stadium.”  He enlisted the Royal KingBee, a Bronx graffiti artist known for his signature bee figures, pooling their money and talent to create their mural with the approval of the building’s owner. The piece relies on characters Mr. Serrano is famous for in Rio, among them Zé Ninguém (“Joe Nobody”) and his dog, locked in battle with Dr. Dor (“Dr. Pain”) and his vermin-like hipster minions who have been killing off the swarms of local bees with the “financial pesticide” of rising rent. A pitched battle ensues, which, in classic comic tradition, is left to be continued.  “The gentrification theme made perfect sense, since big money is affecting the bees,” Mr. Serrano said. “It’s about the bottom line, so we mixed it with real estate. Face it, once graffiti art left the trains, it became about real estate, too. At the end of the day, we’re doing it on people’s property.”  Rick Soto, a neighborhood resident, slowed down as he encountered the wall this month. He chuckled at the story line, but grew serious as he related his own experiences with gentrification. He had worked as a cook at a social service agency on the Bowery, only to see the poor people he served at a soup kitchen get pushed out by new development. Later, he lived in Harlem, whose own transformation ended up pushing him to the Bronx, where he still struggles to cover his expenses, since he is on disability.  “They knock down a block and build buildings where they only give a few apartments to low-income people,” he said. “That’s not helping out. This is ridiculous here. Between rent and food, it’s ridiculous. Man, a lot of people I know are moving to Pennsylvania. It’s cheap.”  An earlier version of this article misstated the name of a cartoon character drawn by Alberto Serrano. He is Zé Ninguém, not ZèNiguèm.
Citing fears of a growing hipster migration reaching north of Manhattan, two graffiti artists have painted a comic-style mural that dramatizes the stakes.