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."
Don't quote me on this, but I think it is the characters for wind and water. I'll ask my wife when I get home.
"Centered and earthy. It doesn't get any better"
Around here the "earty people" usually have smells about them too... goat, sheep, llama, etc...
745 is another bad one. It is pronounced chi si wu, which sounds a lot like chi si wo. The first is the three numbers, the second translates roughly to "kill me with anger". I had that number on a license plate, and the car was hit several times before I managed to get a new plate.
My wife being chinese, she also had me pester the phone company to make sure we got a phone number that didn't have bad number combinations.
I still get a kick out of that story. Forever a classic.
That's as close as I can get too. Chinese is an odd language in that the position of the words and the context can change the meaning. I just completed my second semester of Chinese and the more I know the more I realize I don't know. It's a very humbling course.
5 digit residential house numbers are just plain goofy and so is the art of feng shui. Common sense should not need an oriental reason to prevail.
You ben here fiiiivveeee hour, you eat like kirrer whale!
The buyer of my house in Pennsylvania 8 years ago had one of these kooks come to approve the purchase. She didn't even bother with a normal home inspection, just the kook inspection. Fortunately it passed (they liked the fact that it had a stream). The buyer called me all angry a year later to complain that a family of groundhogs had moved into the hottub enclosure. Oh well!
Proof positive Leftists are the root cause of bad feng shui.
Now that was pretty funny.
Excuse my brevity...I'm trying to grow a beard.
"Real estate agent Lisa Coen, of nearby Pleasanton, who also runs a feng shui consulting firm"
Hey creep, take your practioners and go back to the orient!
When Hong Kong was turned over to the Chinese by the Brits many Capitalist Chinese fled to Canada - particularly to Vancouver (which has a harbor similar to Hong Kong)...they added huge wealth to the city, pricing out many of the former residents who had been there since the formation of the town - say Vancouver - and there is an Asian community southwest of Vancouver called Richmond which is practically 100% Chinese - streets renamed and written in Chinese, Chinese stores who rarely like to wait on customers other than Chinese speaking people and I believe there are many classes conducted in Chinese vs. English. Restaurants, homes, schools and places of worship and community events are all Asian.
Do you think they are inclusive as newcomers to a country?
They are a good people, have tons of money to spend, raise beautiful children and are law abiding for the most part.
What they did however was separate and have no intention of integration into the country.
Ask the people in Vancouver, Canada how they feel about it.
So feng shui away and sell out your beautiful communities with developments suited to the new "Americans" who will never become American but Asians living in America only with their own hierarchical communities, their own voting privileges, and changing the face of the U.S.A.
I see the United States as a future country of colonies of people separated by language, religious belief, schooling, ethnic traditions, dropping the "united" part entirely.
It will become yet another Europe with all its little tiny countries constantly at war...as history has taught us.
I had an old girlfriend who tried to explain Feng Shui to me. She said, for example, that the southeast portion of my home represented my love life.
"That's where the toilet is," I replied.
"Then you should move it," she said.
"I can't. That's where the pipes are."
LOL - agreed - it could be one reason they are so terrified of living large and being responsible for oneself!
Blame it on the feng shui!
There is a story of one SoCal woman who hired a Feng Shui consultant who told her to paint the front door red. She did and the next day the door was covered in gang grafitti.
I met a Californica veterinarian chic that believed in Feng Chewey and all she talked about was Fung Chewey. I told her the principles Fung Chooey were in line with basic Christian principles and actions......that was the last I heard from her.
The Feng Shui craze in the SF Bay Area has to do with "contacts" and "networking".. a prestige and a "who you know means who you are" kinda thing.
You're being more silly and less logical than the Feng Shui follower if you think about it!
If they want pink walls with purple polka dots because their God OogaBooga on the plant OingoBoingo in the 3rd dimensional plan (who happened to be reincarnated from the amoeba found in some worm's crap) commands it, no problem!
As long as the check clears.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.