With a budget deficit of about $14 billion, California could use a major infusion of positive energy.
So it may be appropriate timing that in this most Asian of mainland American regions, State Assemblyman Leland Y. Yee, Democrat of San Francisco, has introduced a resolution that urges the California Building Standards Commission to adopt standards that would aid feng shui, the ancient Chinese practice of promoting health, harmony and prosperity through the environment.
The resolution, which has yet to pass a committee vote before going to the full Assembly, is meant to encourage planning agencies, building departments and design review boards to provide for the use of feng shui principles, which often touch on the placement of doors and staircases, the position of buildings and the alignment of objects in rooms. It aims to help people live in harmony with nature by promoting the flow of chi, or positive energy, and neutralizing or avoiding negative energy.
Thanks to high taxes and insane workers compensation rates, California is already one of the most difficult places in the nation to run a business. Is it really necessary to add to that burden by requiring that new buildings adhere to the concepts of some ancient belief? I would think that California lawmakers would be more concerned about businesses having positive income, not positive chi.
I'm not against encouraging developers to consider making their buildings efficient and harmonious with the environment, but forcing them to adhere to feng shui would only add another layer of red tape to the development process making it that much more likely the developers would choose to build elsewhere.