Hey Thursday! Do you have a colorful car?

🌤️Today's weather: Coast — Cloudy then sunny, high 71; Inland — Sunny, high 77

🎧 Sounds like: "Fear" by Kendrick Lamar

Today's newsletter is 1,011 words — a 4-minute read.

Shark populations are surging along our coast, but that shouldn't scare us, according to new research.

Why it matters: CSU Long Beach researchers are studying whether fear of sharks is innate or learned and whether reducing sharks' bad rap could make it easier to protect them.

• Sharks' bad press is generally unearned, the researchers say. There were just 29 unprovoked great white shark bites in California in the last 10 years, two of which were fatal, according to the International Shark Attack File.

Driving the news: The goal is to combine research on psychology and sharks to create guidance for how people should behave if they see a shark that won't breed irrational fear of the creatures, psychology professor Gabriella Hancock told Axios.

Threat level: Research suggests babies aren't innately afraid of sharks, Hancock said. Instead, our fear of them is learned through all their bad press.

• There's "Jaws," of course, and "Shark Week," "The Meg" and "The Shallows," plus who could forget "Sharknado."
• Meanwhile, wasps, lightning and vending machines aren't usually villains in movies, Hancock said, even though they kill more people than sharks do.

Though a killer vending machine movie would be pretty amazing.

• "If people don't understand the true threat that sharks pose to them, that vacuum gets filled with fiction, and there's more than enough fiction to go around that greatly exaggerates the threat that sharks actually pose," Hancock said.

Yes, and: News media also contributes, because people will remember the one shark bite they see on TV, but every other day the news doesn't report, "No shark bites at the beach today."

Winners: If people have a positive experience with a shark, like petting a shark at an aquarium, they're 300 times more likely to be willing to go to a beach if they know a shark was at that beach the day before, CSU Long Beach Shark Lab director Chris Lowe told Axios.

• And the more people learn about sharks and how mostly uninterested they are in people, the less scary they seem.

The bottom line: Because we learn most of our fears after birth, Hancock and Lowe want to disrupt the negative press for sharks among kids (maybe "Baby Shark" has a purpose after all?) so they'll grow into adults who aren't scared of sharks.

• And hopefully convince their parents that sharks are worth protecting.

Tell a friend

The tiny Escondido restaurant Mesa Agricola just earned a coveted spot on the New York Times Best Restaurants list.

The big picture: The Times picked just 50 restaurants from across the country, and Mesa Agricola was one of six in the state and the only one in the county.

• The counter-service spot had long lines before, and owner Megan Strom expects far more frenzy this weekend.

The intrigue: There were a few hints that the restaurant would get some kind of treatment in the Times, Strom told Axios.

• Reporter Eleanore Park had visited anonymously, but then sent a follow-up fact-checking email.
• Strom and her husband/co-owner Juan González looked up Park's picture and realized she was the customer who seemed to know so much about food.

Dig in: Mesa Agricola's food is "surprisingly tectonic," according to the review, which points out that much of it is grown by Strom on a nearby farm.

• The low-key spot serves tacos and burritos in classic and creative forms.

The couple opened the shop in 2025 and have seen a surge in popularity, including influencer attention on social media.

• It's because of their dedication to Mexican home cooking, Strom said.
• "People either have an extreme emotional connection to eating food they grew up with, like their abuela used to cook, or they're trying it for the first time and they're blown away," she said.

Tell a foodie

🐕 Nash, a golden retriever in Sherman Heights, greeted an intruder not with barks and snarls, but with a toy. Three times, in fact. When police arrived, Nash brought them a toy, too. (New York Post)

🚲 County supervisors voted 4-1 to consider suing companies who market 40-60 mph electric motorcycles as legal e-bikes. (KPBS)

Police shot and killed a man in North Park yesterday. Police said he tried to set an adult store on fire and burned a police K-9 dog. Two officers were also hurt. The dog was expected to recover. (10News)

🚗 The city might ease up on towing cars with expired registrations. The change is meant to help low income people who lose access to their cars. (Union-Tribune)

• But, police can decide whether to ignore or follow the new policy.
• Police Chief Scott Wahl said officers may still tow cars for safety reasons.

We apparently are not fans of color when it comes to our cars.

• San Diego has one of the lowest shares of cars that are not black, white, gray or silver, per an analysis from automotive research platform iSeeCars.com.

That ranks us second to last in the nation for bright wheels.

• We're at 15.9%, a tick higher than LA's 15.7%.
• Cleveland-Akron, Detroit and Minneapolis-St. Paul are the biggest color fans.

And California has among the lowest share of colorful cars in the country, ranking 47th.

Yes, but: I drive a boring white Prius, but still see a fair amount of color around the city.

• But maybe those are the few outliers among all the white SUVs.

OK, hopefully this one will be more of a challenge for you all.

• Where oh where did I take this picture?
• Hit reply to send us your best guess. The person with the most specific answer will get a shoutout in tomorrow's newsletter!

Hint: Reaching this view will get your heart thumping.

🥳 Claire secured a babysitter for the Axios Social Club! See you there!

👩🏻‍🍼 Kate is on parental leave.

This newsletter was edited by Geoff Ziezulewicz.