经济学人下载:城市绅士化 苏活区坚持住好么

Inner-city gentrification
城市绅士化

So long, Soho
苏活区，坚持住好么

London's seediest district hints at some of the ways the capital is changing
伦敦市最脏乱的一个区在某些方面预示着这个城市正在悄然改变

IN 1847 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels earnestly debated the failings of capitalism in rooms above a pub at 20 Great Windmill Street, in Soho. Some 170 years later, patrons of Be at One, the chain which has taken over the venue, have somewhat different problems to worry about. After making their way past a bouncer, and through throngs of people to a bar dimly lit by brown lights, drinkers navigate a cocktail menu around 20 pages long, with eye-watering prices. “I don't like paying 8.50 for a drink,” admits Josh Rogers, an American tourist. “But I'm happy to pay more if the area is vibrant and fun,” he adds, slightly despondently.
1847年，马克思和恩格斯在苏活区20大风车街的一间酒吧楼上的房间里，深刻分析了资本主义的灭亡。在170多年后，Be at One—早已接管此地的连锁店—的顾客们却在担忧另外的一些问题。越过保镖，穿过拥挤的人群进入尽是昏暗灯光的酒吧，酒客们浏览着足足有20多页的鸡尾酒菜单，价格也贵的令人咋舌。“我不愿花8.5英镑（13美元）就买一杯喝的，”美国游客乔希罗杰斯说。“但若是这个地方能更娱乐化一点我还是很乐意花钱的，”他略带遗憾地补充道。

Soho, an area of about half a square kilometre in the West End, has long been an anomaly in central London. At the turn of the 20th century it was full of French, German, Polish and Italian immigrants; just before the first world war one writer remarked that “when the respectable Londoner wants to feel devilish he goes to Soho”. Full of pretty Georgian houses and dark side streets, it resisted development in the 1970s, and it remains a red-light district: around 40 flats are still used for prostitution. Film and television companies cluster above bars and restaurants.
苏活区，这个位于西区近0.5平方公里的地区，长久以来都是伦敦市中心的变异型。在20世纪初，这里满是法国、德国、波兰和意大利的移民；在第一次世界大战之前就有一位作家说道“当备受尊崇的伦敦人想体验邪恶生活，他们都会去苏活区。”满目尽是漂亮的乔治王时代艺术风格的房屋和昏暗的街边，拒绝跟上19世纪70年代的发展，这里仍是红灯区：有近40栋楼房仍是卖淫场所。电影电视公司都簇集在酒吧和餐厅的楼上。

But the area has become far less gritty. Fewer prostitutes operate there; most shops selling pornography have closed down. At the end of November Madame Jojo's, a burlesque bar, had its licence revoked, after a fight took place outside it, and the bar's security team were captured on CCTV wielding baseball bats. The club had already been approved for redevelopment by the Soho Estates, one of two large landowners in the area, but the incident speeded up its closure. Denmark Street, known as Tin Pan Alley because of the number of music shops along it, is due to be turned into a street of flats and pop-up shops. A former police station which was empty for 13 years is currently being turned into an apartment block.
但是这个地方已经大不如以前那般。越来越少的卖淫场所；大多数贩卖色情产品的商店都纷纷歇业。一间名为乔乔女士的脱衣舞酒吧外曾发生了一次斗殴事件，监控中拍下了酒吧安保团队挥舞棒球杆的场面，11月末，该酒吧被吊销了营业执照。这间酒吧已经获得了苏活区地产开发—该地区两大地头蛇之一的重建许可，但是这般小插曲倒加速了它的倒闭。丹麦街，更响亮的被称为锡盘巷，因为沿街有众多的音乐制品店，即将变成尽是楼房和快闪商店的街道。一栋空了13年的前警察局如今也正在被改造成一栋公寓。

In part these changes reflect how Britain itself has become more cosmopolitan. In the 1960s Soho was full of food markets selling rarities such as avocados and globe artichokes, recalls Matthew Bennett, who has lived there for five decades. Now you can get such goods “at a Waitrose in Penzance,” he sniffs. Many quirky shops were on long-term leases which have since expired, while in some parts of the West End getting a licence to open a late-night bar has become harder. The internet has chipped away at the sex industry. In 2007 the local council cracked down on “clip joints”—where men are fooled into paying for titillation that never happens.
这些变化在很大程度上反映了英国是如何变得愈加国际化。在19世纪60年代，苏活区满是贩售稀有物品的食品市场，像是鳄梨和朝鲜蓟，已在那里生活了50年的马修班内特如是回忆。如今你能“在彭赞斯的任一家维特罗斯里”买到这些商品，他说。许多古怪的商店都曾有长期租约而如今已过期，另外一些西区的部分商店想要获得午夜酒吧的许可证已变得愈发困难。互联网已经削弱了性产业。在2007年，当地议会严厉打击 “夜总会”—在这里，男人们经常会冲动的为从未有过的新鲜感一掷千金。

An increased demand for residential properties in central London has speeded up these changes. Since 2003 the West End has lost around 180,000 square metres of office floorspace as developers turn offices into flats. Increasing numbers of rich families with younger children live in the city centre, an area that many would have shunned two decades ago. Between 2003 and 2013 the number of children under the age of 16 in Westminster, the authority which encompasses Soho, increased by 30%, nearly double the rate for that age group across London. As a result, landowners have become more active in sprucing up the area: “Our motto is: edgy but not seedy,” says Steve Norris, the chairman of Soho Estates and a former Conservative MP. Crossrail, a new train line with a station north of Soho at Tottenham Court Road, will also bring a swathe of shiny new shops and offices.
伦敦市中心的居民住宅需求量增加已加速了这些变化。自2003年西区失去18万平方米的办公用地转而被开发商用作住宅楼。愈来愈多的有年幼子女的富裕家庭居住在市中心，这个人们20年前都避而远之的地区。在2003年到2013年间，威斯敏斯特—包括苏活区—16岁以下青少年数量增加了30％，是整个伦敦该年龄段人数增长率的二倍。自然地，土地所有者都纷纷打出了各种旗号：“我们的口号是：前卫但不下流，”苏活区房产开发中心老板、前保守党议员史蒂夫诺里斯说。横贯铁路，位于苏活区北边托特纳姆法院路一种带有车站的新型列车线路，也将带来更多的各式各样的商店和办公室。

This irks many, however. “Soho is the last ramshackle area of the old soot-stained, post-war London,” says Rupert Everett, an actor who has campaigned for the rights of sex workers. “Once that turns into a cascade of glass, then London is gone,” he sighs. After the closure of Madame Jojo's a campaign group, Save Soho, was set up; around 9,000 people have signed a petition lambasting the change of “once proud centres of subculture” into “identikit high-end boutiques”. Pete Townshend, a musician, has argued that Denmark Street should be made into a “heritage zone”.
然而这一举动却引起各方怨言。“苏活区是旧式烟色战后伦敦的最后残影，” 鲁伯特埃弗雷特说，他是曾身体力行支持性工作者的演员。“一旦这里变成了各式样玻璃窗，那么伦敦也就不复存在了，”他感叹道。在乔乔女士的一个活动团体的没落之后，拯救苏活区，崛起了；近9000人已签署了请愿书，抗议把“曾经骄傲的文化中心”变作了“尽是广告人物海报的高端精品店。”音乐家皮特汤森坚持认为，丹麦街应该被建成一个“遗产区”。

This poses a dilemma for developers. They want to spruce up the area while retaining the vague air of bohemianism that has attracted many to it. Parts of Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco, which was the centre of the hippie-era “summer of love”, have become tourist attractions, partly because of NIMBY residents. Westminster City Council is trying to limit the number of office-to-residential conversions. Others are pushing for a “creative-industry policy” for the area, in which film companies and the like have a say about developments. Such schemes may help prevent Soho changing too swiftly. But in many cases it may be too late.
这使得开发商陷入了两难境地。他们想在装饰该地区的同时还要保留这里吸引众人来此的放荡不羁的环境风格。旧金山嬉皮区，曾是嬉皮士时代“爱的夏天”的中心，该区的部分地区已逐渐成为各式景点，这一定程度上是邻避居民的原因。威斯敏斯特市议会正试图限制办公转变为住宅的数量。还有在该地区不断推进“创意产业政策”，凭该政策那些电影公司之类的都可以对发展有所谏言。这般规划可能会有助于抑制苏活区的快速变化进程。但是在很多情况下，这些规划可能已经太迟了。