Bleeding Fiction

It's a little old by now, but I recently discovered that a California State Assemblyman from San Francisco proposed a resolution last month that architects and building officials should take Feng Shui into account when designing and constructing buildings.

Feng Shui, for those not in the know, is a Chinese form of geomancy wherein a person harmonizes their living space in order to encourage positive energy ("Chi") flow. Much of the philosophy is basic design sense, of the sort you can find by watching any given episode of any given show on Home and Garden TV, things like "use mirrors to make a space feel bigger or help shine a light in a dark corner." Not exactly the mystical secrets of the ancients here, or even hippie-granola-crunchy stuff. In all likelihood, we're talking things that architects and designers are doing anyway when they design buildings. "Don't make two doors to the outside directly opposite each other" and "don't put a lot of windows on the side of the building the wind blows from" are probably things you learn on your first day of your first class of Architecture study.

And when you think about it, the resolution makes sense. California in general and San Francisco in particular have a fairly high and growing Chinese population, some of whom surely like to maintain contact with their cultural roots. If Feng Shui is one way they do that, then it's nice of Assemblyman Yee to propose a resolution to be nice to his constituients.

What amazes me is the resistance he's getting. The article I read says that the Building Standards Commission and building industry executives are resisting the idea, claiming budget issues, existing legislation and lack of knowledge. Now, let me make something plain here: Mr. Yee is not proposing a new law. He's proposing a resolution. Resolutions are suggestions and well-wishes, nothing more. Congress resolves things all the time. They resolve to wish a Happy Birthday to world leaders, to support a Presidential action or to honor someone. Government Resolutions are like New Year's Resolutions: pleasant thoughts and good intentions, but without any serious consequence. They cost nothing more than the time it takes to pass them and the paper they're printed on.

So, we've got a guy who's saying "let's make some people feel good by coming out in support of architects and designers doing the things they were doing anyway when it won't cost us a dime" and people are arguing against it. That's just silly.