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Developers: Calif. City Has Bad Feng Shui
The Tampa Tribune ^ | 12-27-2005

Posted on 12/27/2005 12:32:06 PM PST by Cagey

HAYWARD, California (AP) -- Developers looking to maximize the marketability of their homes are complaining about the city's street address rules, which they claim can scare off buyers who practice the ancient Chinese art of feng shui.

Under a numbering system established by Alameda County in the 1950s, addresses are assigned based on how far the homes are from downtown Oakland, a method that puts five digits on almost every mailbox in Hayward and other cities in the county.

The numbers have always been hard to remember, but home builders recently raised concerns that they may decrease property values because the odds are greater that an address will carry a number considered unlucky by feng shui practitioners.

Feng shui holds that the way buildings are designed can affect the fortunes and health of inhabitants.

"Now developers are saying, 'Why do we have to do it this way?'" Sylvia Ehrenthal, Hayward's director of economic and community development, told The Oakland Tribune for a Monday story. "There are some numbers people don't like to have in their address."

City Council members, five of whom live at addresses with numbers that start in the 20,000 range, voted unanimously last week to allow the builders of an upscale development to use shorter street numbers. In seeking the waiver, the builders cited convenience concerns as well as the potential for violating feng shui precepts, according to Richard Patenaude, Hayward's principal planner.

Real estate agent Lisa Coen, of nearby Pleasanton, who also runs a feng shui consulting firm, said she has advised developers on how to make homes attractive to buyers who would not want to live at the end of a cul-de-sac or where a door opens onto a staircase.

"It does matter to some people. It really does matter," Coen said. "They won't buy a house ... if the number's not right."


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; US: California
KEYWORDS: california; fengshui; whereelse
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To: Cagey

If they just burn a couple of witches while throwing salt over their left shoulders at the dark of the moon, it'll clear right up.


21 posted on 12/27/2005 12:41:50 PM PST by nina0113 (Meow)
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To: Cagey
To land on reply #12 is bad Feng Shui!

That will be $777.77.

;-)

22 posted on 12/27/2005 12:41:58 PM PST by dighton
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To: TXBSAFH

LOL!


23 posted on 12/27/2005 12:42:09 PM PST by Cagey (Some men are Baptists, others Catholics, my father was an Oldsmobile man.)
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To: fizziwig

I'll bet that feng shui you had for lunch contained MSG.


24 posted on 12/27/2005 12:42:34 PM PST by Ditter
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To: Cagey

Un-freakin-believable.

Only in the Bay area could something like this happen.


25 posted on 12/27/2005 12:42:37 PM PST by MplsSteve
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To: Cagey

Oakland has bad feng shui????

and I always thought it was gas from bad burritos.


26 posted on 12/27/2005 12:42:52 PM PST by usmcobra (30 years since I first celebrated The Marine Corps Birthday as a Marine)
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To: TXBSAFH
Positive energy interruption you say. Up the voltage!!!!

What does a rolling positive energy blackout look like?

27 posted on 12/27/2005 12:43:38 PM PST by Gordongekko909 (I know. Let's cut his WHOLE BODY off.)
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To: MplsSteve

I call it the Sin Freaksico area.


28 posted on 12/27/2005 12:44:02 PM PST by TXBSAFH ("I would rather be a free man in my grave then living as a puppet or a slave." - Jimmy Cliff)
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To: Cagey
Well, perhaps if they put the seats down on every toilet in California the mystical Che will return.

Or maybe not.

29 posted on 12/27/2005 12:44:11 PM PST by Reactionary (The Stalinist Media is the Enemy)
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To: fizziwig

The street address of my office building is 666 Grand.
What's more, it is the only building on the block(it takes up the whole block. Why they chose that number is beyond me.


30 posted on 12/27/2005 12:44:54 PM PST by babaloo
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To: Cagey

It's just that demon life has got me in feng shui
It's just that demon life has got me in feng shui

ah California...... the Granola state.


31 posted on 12/27/2005 12:45:28 PM PST by Vaquero
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To: nina0113

Why is Michael Newdow not whining about this?


32 posted on 12/27/2005 12:46:05 PM PST by Gordongekko909 (I know. Let's cut his WHOLE BODY off.)
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To: Cagey

Wow . . . I'm in the middle of my office, and I'm wearing earth tones. My chi must be kickin' ass today!


33 posted on 12/27/2005 12:46:25 PM PST by Xenalyte (MILF! MILF! MILF! MILF!)
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To: Cagey

I never understood the reason for those five digit numbers.

Always looked to me like bureaucracy gone overboard.


34 posted on 12/27/2005 12:46:37 PM PST by mhx
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To: Cagey
Real estate agent Lisa Coen, of nearby Pleasanton, who also runs a feng shui consulting firm, said she has advised developers on how to make homes attractive to buyers

I can't believe people pay money for this. Anyone even thinking of paying for Feng Shui consulting should watch the Penn & Teller BS episode on it and see how different consultants claiming to be using the same core theories had entirely different designs to maximize the energies. Just hire a good designer, maybe even one who has studied the design aspects of Feng Shui (basically it could be just called the Tao school of design, but it includes concepts known to every architect and designer), and forget about paying extra for the hooga booga.

35 posted on 12/27/2005 12:46:42 PM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: Cagey

Another excuse for eminent domain, a neighborhood has bad Feng Shui.


36 posted on 12/27/2005 12:46:51 PM PST by Mind-numbed Robot (Not all that needs to be done needs to be done by the government.)
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To: fizziwig

That's what I was thinking. That other than 666, what's a bad number? Honestly, my hubby's cell # starts with 666 and when he got that new # a few years back and came home, I told him what I thought about the # and hurt his feelings but then I realized that it would be very easy to remember and I am not superstitious - it's just a phone #! Anyway, the first few times I called him up, I'd say "Hiya Devil Boy" or something like that.


37 posted on 12/27/2005 12:47:44 PM PST by Paved Paradise
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To: Ditter
"Not being a feng shui sort of person , what would the bad numbers be?"

They believe that the number "4" is bad luck. An office building at 444 Market St. in SF spent a large sum to rename itself "#1 something or other" "square" or "place" to get rid of the 4's in their address. There was a bank in the building that was losing chinese customers because of its bad luck address.

38 posted on 12/27/2005 12:47:49 PM PST by Neanderthal
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To: Mind-numbed Robot; Cagey

ROTFLMAO! If I had a house with all those colors, they're right: no one would want to buy it!

Unless they have stock in Sherwin Williams! ;o)


39 posted on 12/27/2005 12:48:11 PM PST by Froufrou
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To: Ditter

Exactly!


40 posted on 12/27/2005 12:48:23 PM PST by Paved Paradise
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