New Yorkers looking for signs that the Democratic mayoral front-runner, Fernando Ferrer, faces an increasingly difficult race against Mayor Bloomberg needn’t rely on the newest Quinnipiac poll, which yesterday showed the mayor expanding his lead over Mr. Ferrer to 16 points.

Instead, they can look at James De La Vega’s storefront.

Mr. De La Vega, a prominent East Harlem artist whose graffiti murals and poetry have earned him renown throughout the neighborhood, has painted over the “Ferrer for Mayor” mural that since June had adorned the pull-down metal gate of his gallery at 1651 Lexington Ave.

Where previously the storefront bore the image of Mr. Ferrer’s earnest visage and an exhortation to vote for “a mayor that really speaks Spanish,” the contours of the former Bronx borough president are now blotted out with a ghostlike white spray. Over it is scrawled a lamentation: “Latino leadership has always allowed itself to be governed by black and white politics. We are puppets clowning around hoping for a piece of the pie. Spanish Harlem deserves to be taken away.” The revised mural urges passersby to “Vote Bloomberg for Mayor.” Mr. De La Vega, who is of Puerto Rican descent, said yesterday the new painting expressed his frustration with Mr. Ferrer’s timidity in the face of criticism from New York’s African-American leadership, as well as the candidate’s unwillingness to fight for Latinos being “priced out” of Spanish Harlem as affluent whites flock to his neighborhood.

“You can’t go and take over black Harlem,” Mr. De La Vega said. “Otherwise, Al Sharpton would be on your” case.

Mr. De La Vega, an activist against the gentrification of his neighborhood who was a write-in candidate for state senator in 2004, has long bemoaned the rising rents he says are forcing lifelong East Harlem residents to leave the community – and are forcing him to close down his shop. It’s an issue he said Mr. Ferrer should have been trumpeting over the last several months. Instead, Mr. De La Vega said, Mr. Ferrer – cowed by African-American criticism and hesitant to do or say anything that might imperil his poll numbers – has abandoned New York’s Latinos in this campaign.

“Ferrer was insulted by the black community because of the stuff he said about Diallo,” Mr. De La Vega said, referring to Mr. Ferrer’s pronouncement in March that the police shooting of an unarmed West African immigrant, Amadou Diallo, was not a crime. “And all of a sudden, he shriveled up and backed off.” Mr. Ferrer has been widely faulted for running a risk-averse Rose Garden strategy in the months since the Diallo gaffe.

Mr. Bloomberg, on the other hand, is at least willing to take risks and stand up for his positions and goals, regardless of controversy, the artist said.

“Bloomberg doesn’t back down. Bloomberg is a self-made billionaire. He’s not playing games,” Mr. De La Vega said.

“Bloomberg takes his risks, and if people don’t agree, he still says, ‘This is my vision and this is what we’re doing,'” Mr. De La Vega added.

In a statement e-mailed to The New York Sun, Mr. Ferrer responded: “Mike Bloomberg’s policies are what forced Mr. De La Vega to close his business and be priced out of East Harlem. I’d think he’d know as well as anyone how much New Yorkers need affordable housing. I hope to make the case to him and all other New Yorkers that I’m the candidate who’s really fighting for that goal.”

The artist, however, said his newest graffiti creation represents the frustrations of many in the Latino community toward Mr. Ferrer. It is a sentiment the former Bronx borough president can ill afford, as many political analysts say he must achieve a high turnout among his Latino base if he is to triumph in the September 13 Democratic primary.