Guru of Managed Growth : Promises Heaven on Earth
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, guru to the stars, is back, and he’s as au courant as ever.
After a lifetime of teaching inner peace through meditation, he’s gone into the land-use consulting business. In spirit, if not in flesh, the Maharishi has also inserted his essence into the local debate over growth.
The 77-year-old Maharishi is staying close to his digs in India these days, but two of his disciples called a press conference at the La Jolla Marriott Hotel last weekend to explain the master’s latest venture: the modestly named Maharishi Heaven on Earth Development Corp.
San Diego County has been selected by the Maharishi--and his Malibu-based devotees in
the real estate business--as a suitable place for at least one of the 50 “Cities of Immortals” that the Maharishi wants built across the United States.
The Maharishi’s followers won’t do the actual construction work, but, for 2.5% of the construction costs, they’ll advise a development company on how to build a “village” of up to 200 units according to the principles of Sthapatya-Veda, a branch of Vedic Science, an Eastern mystic science of natural law.
Such communities would be free of crime, congestion, pollution and suburban dullness, they promise. Meditation centers and Maharishi schools would bloom.
Sthapatya-Veda is said to speak of how to properly align a house on a plot of ground and how to arrange certain rooms to harmonize with both the laws of nature and interior decoration.
“I know it may seem way out,” said Maharishi disciple and San Diego real estate salesman Peter Sterling, “but the Maharishi has long been ahead of his times. He was one of the original managed-growth persons.”
The Maharishi, it turns out, was light-years ahead of Propositions B, D, H and J and other growth solutions.
“He definitely does not believe in building caps,” Sterling said. “He believes in building but not high densities.”
So far, the local response has been mild from local development firms. No takers.
Safe Viewing
When the movie “Colors,” an L.A. cop-gang drama with Sean Penn and Robert Duvall, made it to the big screen, it was greeted by so-so reviews and a load of hype.
The angle was that surly gang members were flocking to movie theaters. It was worth more publicity than the movie makers could ever have purchased.
Now “Colors” is available at local video stores, and the hype continues. A sticker on each video box advises: “Watch Now in the Safety of Your Own Home.”
Soviet Sightseeing
What do the animal trainers from the Moscow Circus do on their off hours as the group makes its first tour of the United States in a decade?
Visit zoos, naturally. Twelve at last count, including the San Diego Zoo last week.
The tiger and bear trainers were particularly interested in the San Diego Zoo because they had been told it’s the best in the world. Who told them that?
Pravda, which by government decree is never wrong.
Bright Side to Big Mess
Gasoline for 10 1/2 cents a gallon?
Yep, the only problem is that it’s underneath downtown San Diego and has to be pumped out. The redevelopment agency will receive 10 1/2 cents a gallon for every gallon retrieved by a private firm from the spreading plume from a leaky underground tank.
Come Again?
Here’s Howard P. Allen, chairman and chief executive of Southern California Edison Co., trying to sell 100 utility industry analysts in New York last week on why the proposed buyout of San Diego Gas & Electric Co. is a good thing for stockholders:
“In addition, the merger will provide Edison with oil- and gas-fired generating plants outside the Los Angeles Basin, where environmental regulations can, at times, affect operations.”
Translation: When the L.A. plants belch so much junk into the air they have to be shut down, we’ll just stoke up the SDG&E; plants in Carlsbad and South Bay a bit longer and higher.
