This Street Artist Repairs Cracked Sidewalks — With Gold Mosaics

The idea came, the artist says, from kintsugi — the craft of mending broken pottery with gold. If a broken bowl could become more beautiful for its fracture, why not a broken street?

Each repair uses salvaged tile and resin, takes about nine hours, and is signed with a small stamped maker's mark. City law calls it vandalism; passers-by photograph it faster than the inspectors can log it.

This month the council reached a very municipal compromise: a fine, paid with ceremony, and a commission to mend three plaza benches by spring. The artist has accepted both.

“Six years, 214 repairs, zero permits. The city has decided to fine the artist, then quietly commissioned three more.”