Welcome to New York — where the streets are paved with vermin.
A Chicago artist famed for filling his city’s potholes with eye-catching mosaics has brought his creative civic-minded mission to the Big Apple — replacing eight of our pavement craters with tiled images of dead rats, cockroaches and pigeons.
“Potholes are universal truths — nobody loves them, everyone hates them,” artist Jim Bachor, 54, told The Post.
“I think it’s fun to possibly brighten someone’s day in the most unexpected way,’’ he said. “You don’t expect to see art on the street, so I want the subject matter to be odd.”
The guerilla artist has filled five city potholes with a series he called “Vermin of New York,” which includes a dead cockroach on Bleecker Street near Mercer Street in Greenwich Village, a dead pigeon on Pacific Street near Vanderbilt Avenue in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn — and a cheeky portrait of President Trump’s face in the East Village.
“It could be seen in both ways — one that you’re honoring our president or that you get to drive over Trump,” Bachor said of the image on Second Street between First Avenue and Avenue A.
He also made three other pothole pieces on Gotham’s pockmarked pavements during his time here — but has yet to reveal their locations. Bachor didn’t get city permission for the asphalt art — he and his crew just put down their own traffic cones and wore neon vests as they cemented in the glass and marble works he pre-made back at his Windy City studio.
“I didn’t even see a cop the entire time I was installing the work. We look like city workers,” he said.
The city’s real Department of Transportation says it isn’t a fan of Bachor’s work — and will pave over them when it finds them.
“Aside from putting himself in harm’s way in the middle of roadways, the artist’s adding of artwork in the street is a danger to all road users, which poses safety hazards should drivers become distracted by the art,” said spokeswoman Alana Morales.
Bachor says he’s never had complaints about the free road repairs back in Chicago, where he’s been filling blacktop cavities — with whimsical images of trash, flowers and patterns — since 2013, and the patch-ups have become celebrated local icons.
“Mr. Bachor and his art are proof that even the coldest, harshest winter can not darken the spirits of Chicagoans,” that city’s Transportation Department told the Chicago Tribune in 2014.
New Yorkers say they hope their DOT comes around to appreciating the art, too.
“He did a great job,” said Steven Ross, 62.
Additional reporting by Yoav Gonen