The up-front cost of a heat pump is definitely an issue. IMO we should be doing instant rebates to even out the cost between the two so that it's an easy decision.

Sure it was possible, but what benefit would doing all that work get you? More memory use! It wasn't until Python 3.5 that Python 3 was clearly better for most use cases. Even today the regression import performance is problematic for CLI tools.

To gracefully deprecate this behavior, you could start by generating a warning each time an implicit coercion is done. Next, make implicit coercion raise an exception, but provide a way to suppress it. Finally, remove the ability to suppress the exception.

As the GP suggests, you'd do well to similarly deprecate unprefixed strings.

This would all be pretty confusing to explain if you were renaming the string types at the same time, as Python 3 did. I think that's an indication that you shouldn't rename the types. You could deprecate `str` and just use the names `bytes` and `unicode`, which go nicely with the `b''` and `u''` mnemonics anyway.

Python 3 also changed the type of string used for Python identifiers. You'd need a strategy there as well.

It might be convenient to have some type-checking `dict` variants in the stdlib, but I think it's a separate issue from addressing the coercion issue.

And I agree --- the county response has not impressed. In that sense it's actually great that the encampment is in such a prominent location. The county can't keep playing their inhumane game of whack-a-mole. They have to actually do something.

The SMART financing situation is certainly a mess, but I don't think that it's reasonable to expect revenue neutrality from a public transit agency. I think it's reasonable for it to see a public subsidy proportionate with automobile infrastructure. However, I am personally very frustrated about the gaps in the bike path.

I'm mostly inclined to blame the situation on the ridiculous way we fund transit development in this country. Everything is funded from a mix of sources --- local, state, and federal --- and the federal funds are often "matching" funds. So SMART has to carefully break projects into bits to match the available funds and grant criteria. It's ridiculously inefficient. But of course, this complaint isn't really actionable given the political gridlock at the national level.

Thank you for being an informed and thoughtful presence in this thread!

I don't expect that you intended it this way, but be aware that the way you've phrased the question is likely to offend --- homelessness is complex and most homeless folks aren't criminals.

(Seriously, Prop 13 is awful policy.)

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I.e., the Oracle approach.