San Francisco's district attorney charged two men yesterday in connection with a street confrontation that left a member of Mayor Daniel Lurie's security detail injured.

Why it matters: The incident has sparked controversy in recent days after a video posted to social media appeared to show the bodyguard initiated contact — countering early descriptions of the encounter.

• The scuffle, which unfolded in the Tenderloin, is raising questions about police use of force and the mayor's hands-on approach to addressing San Francisco's homelessness crisis, the San Francisco Standard reports.

Catch up quick: Last Thursday evening, Lurie's SUV was blocked by three people on Cedar Street near Polk, per Mission Local. Lurie got out and asked them to move. When one person didn't, a member of his security team stepped in and a physical altercation followed.

• The officer hit his head on the pavement and suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Lurie, who was unharmed, observed the struggle and later told reporters he went to look for assistance as the confrontation intensified.
• Police arrested and later charged Tony Shervaughn Phillips and Abraham Simon for their roles in the incident.

Between the lines: Surveillance footage posted to social media first reported on by the San Francisco Chronicle depicted the officer forcefully shoving Phillips to the ground before the fight escalated.

• The video complicates initial accounts of the encounter.
• Lurie said last week he stopped and got out of the vehicle because he was concerned about pedestrian and traffic safety.

San Francisco's Department of Police Accountability has launched a probe into what happened, per the Chronicle.

The big picture: The episode highlights the tension between Lurie's street-level approach to homelessness and the volatile conditions in the Tenderloin, where open-air drug use remains pervasive.

• It also blunts his public safety messaging that San Francisco is on the upswing, while resurfacing broader questions about policing tactics.
• Lurie's office did not respond to Axios' questions yesterday about his reaction to the footage or whether he plans to adjust his street-level engagement strategy.

Randy Shaw, executive director of the nonprofit the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, told Axios the incident reflects long-standing concerns about the Tenderloin's street conditions.

• "If this incident occurred in the Marina District, people would say, 'What the hell? How could that happen?'... But it occurs here, and they say, 'Well, those are the kind of people who are allowed to be in the Tenderloin,'" he said. "We shouldn't still be having these problems in this neighborhood."

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Dorothy "Polka Dot" Quock stepped onto her own private cable car in full Lunar New Year regalia yesterday afternoon, pink-and-white polka dot socks peeking out from beneath her pants as a wink to the nickname she's borne for decades.

Why it matters: Quock, a seemingly ageless icon who nonetheless turned 92 in January and has spent her years keeping Chinatown's history alive, was honored by the city in an event near Fisherman's Wharf.

• "Old age is not for sissies," she told me, her eyes sparkling. "So I'm a sassy lady elder."

Flashback: Quock was born in Chinatown in 1934, the fifth of eight children. Her family primarily lived in single-residency occupancy units in Chinatown, often sharing a bath and kitchen with other families on the floor.

• Her dad worked as a rice deliveryman while her mom found employment at Levi's sewing factory.

Zoom in: After her father died when she was 12, she found refuge in Cameron House, a Chinese community nonprofit that started out as an early 20th-century safe house for trafficked Chinese girls and women.

• It was there she became known as "Polka Dot." A program director coined the nickname to avoid confusion with another Dorothy. (He called the latter "Giant Dot.")

State of play: After getting married at 19, Quock took on several secretarial roles before settling down in Livermore to raise three kids — "three too many," she quipped.

• Once they were grown and out of the home, she found herself moving back to her childhood neighborhood in her 60s.
• She quickly became a local celebrity, both as a Chinatown walking tour guide and a fashion icon — polka dots being her signature look.

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🚗 An analysis of more than a million parking tickets shows that the Financial District, Marina, North Beach and SoMa had the highest citation rates per capita last year. (SF Chronicle)

🏗️ Construction has begun on the city's first affordable housing project for artists — a new building at Market and Gough streets that will offer living and creative space to help them stay in San Francisco. (CBS News)

Grab your travel pack of tissues. Allergy season is getting longer in many U.S. cities amid climate change, per a new Climate Central analysis.

• From 1970 to 2025, plants' freeze-free growing season lengthened in nearly 90% of the 198 cities analyzed.
• That's the time between the last and first freeze, used here to represent allergy season.
• In some parts of the West, the season is now between 40 to 100 days longer.

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Ocean Beach was packed over the weekend, but when I headed to the very southern end near the zoo I was rewarded with a lucky sighting: a flock of sanderlings skittering across the sand.

• Moving all at once, they looked like a fast-moving cloud, and I sat on the sand for quite a while watching them in action — it was an absolute treat.

🌊 I'll take that as a sign to get back out there soon.