City Hall Calls in Feng Shui Consultant

[ARubberChickenWithAPulley]

Found this article while perusing Google News:

Could feng shui be the way to change City Hall? (http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a1_5fengsep25,0,7942531.story)

The First Lady of Allentown, Pennsylvania has called in a Feng Shui consultant to help rework City Hall. According to the article, because the town is in a budget crisis, major work will have to be paid for by donation. Still, I am curious what minor work is being paid for with the taxpayers money (especially given that they in a budget crisis), specifically if the taxpayers are paying for the Feng Shui expert's consultation fee. In the article, the city's first lady makes it seem like they are basically redecorating to make City Hall a more pleasant place to work. I don't think there is anything wrong with redocrating. I would see something wrong if the Feng Shui expert charges considerably more than a regular decorator, and if it is being done on the taxpayers dime. I suppose since I am not a resident of Allentown (or Pennsylvania for that matter), I shouldn't concern myself too much with this. It just caught my attention.

On the other hand, Nancy Reagan consulted an astrologist so...

[Goshawk]

Well, this part of it made me laugh right out loud:
At City Hall, the dark, low ceiling and trapezoidal shape of council chambers is a feng shui disaster, Cannon said.

< snip >

In the last four years, the room has been the scene of political infighting and bad decisions...
So, if she adjusts it according to feng shui principles, will that mean that the council chambers will no longer be the scene of political infighting and bad decisions?

Wow.

Never heard of a council chamber that wasn't the scene of political infighting and bad decisions, but it's good to know that all we have to do to fix Congress and eliminate all the political infighting and bad decisions is to feng shui it.

[wombatwal]

Maybe Bush should have sent a Feng Shui consultant to Baghdad to fix up it's negative vibes before he invaded the country.
Maybe would have been cheaper than the billions of dollars and hundreds maybe thousands of American dead, not counting the tens of thousands of Iraqi dead.

[Blue Wode]

Still, I am curious what minor work is being paid for with the taxpayers money (especially given that they in a budget crisis), specifically if the taxpayers are paying for the Feng Shui expert's consultation fee.
It would appear that the Feng Shui consultant, Carol Cannon, is donating her services:
Cannon, a former vice president of commercial real estate appraisal at Chase Manhattan Bank of New York, and owner of Corporate Creatives, is donating her services and is in the middle of putting together a report of feng shui recommendations for City Hall.
Although what good her recommendations will do remains to be seen since it’s likely that the “institutional malaise” has nothing to do with the décor or layout:
Assistant solicitor Martin Danks said the way people feel when they come to City Hall might have more to do with the reasons they're coming than the layout and look of the building.

''A lot people who come here are coming to pay their taxes or pull a building permit, so they are already in a heightened state of anxiety,'' Danks said.
Here in the UK, we’re no strangers to the dubious art of Feng Shui. Some time ago, Cherie Blair invited a Feng Shui expert to 10 Downing Street to rearrange the furniture. Then, apparently, she influenced the government to recruit Feng Shui consultant, Renuka Wickmaratne, for advice on how to improve inner-city council estates. This was Ms Wickmaratne’s solution:
“Red and orange flowers would reduce crime,” she concluded, “and introducing a water feature would reduce poverty.”

http://www.newhumanist.org.uk/volume118issue2_comments.php?id=8_0_2_0_C
Who would have guessed it would be that simple.

[JLam]

Somebody needs to send this mayor a copy of P&T's Feng Shui episode.

[ARubberChickenWithAPulley]

It would appear that the Feng Shui consultant, Carol Cannon, is donating her services:

Good catch. I guess it pays to actually read the article closely ;)

[a_unique_person]

How do you actually pronounce Feng Shui? Every time I say it, my kids burst out laughing.

[The Don]

I've heard a number of alternative ways to pronouce it:

"Feng Shwee"
"Fung Shway"

I prefer

"Bag 'o sh1te"

[Steven Howard]

The "first lady" of Allentown, Pennsylvania? Since when do cities have first ladies? And since when does the mayor's wife get to redecorate City Hall?

[Cuddles]

I know Feng Shui claims to work on mystical energy and things, but I thought generally it is used now (in the west at least) just to make rooms look and feel nice. If all you're doing is moving things around and painting the walls to make the office more comfortable, surely it doesn't matter if you call yourself a Feng Shui consultant or an interior designer. Especially if it's free.