美国大城市的生与死(中英文)

«美国大城市的生与死»

(THE DEATH AND LIFE OF GREAT AMRICAN CITIES)

美国女作家简.雅各布斯(Jane Jacobs) 1 Introduction

(1) This book is and attack on city planning and rebuilding. It is also, and mostly, an attempt to introduce new principles of city planning and rebuilding, different and even opposite from those now taught in everything from schools of architecture and planning to the Sunday supplements and women’s magazi nes. My attack is not based on quibbles about rebuilding methods or hairsplitting about fashions in design. It is an attack, rather, on the principles and aims that have shaped modern, orthodox city planning and rebuilding.(2002.2.8)

(2) In setting forth different principles,

I shall mainly be writing about common, ordinary things: for instance, what kinds of city streets are safe and what kinds are not; why some city parks are marvelous and others are vice traps and death traps; why some slums stay slums and other slums regenerate themselves even against financial and official opposition; what makes downtowns shift their centers; what, if anything, is a city neighborhood, and what jobs, if any, neighborhoods in great cities do. In short, I shall be writing about how cities work in real life, because this is the only way to learn what principles of planning and what practices in rebuilding can promote social and economic vitality in cities, and what practices and principle will deaden these attributes.(2002.2.8)

译文：

介绍

（1）这是一本抨击现今城市规划和改造的书。应该说书中的大多数内容，尝试着介绍新的城市规划和改造原则，这些原则不同于学校里所传授的东西，不同于周日特刊的计划，也不同于从妇女杂志中所看到的，甚至是与那些原则完全相反的。我的抨击并不是以关于改建手法的模棱两可的双关语为基础，也不是对设计的时尚吹毛求疵。它所抨击的是那些形成现代和传统城市规划和改造的原则和目的。

（2）为了阐明这些不同的原则，我从那些普通的事物写起：例如，什么样的城市街道是安全的，而什么样的是不安全的；为什么有的城市公园是美妙的不可思议的，而有的则成为了城市藏污纳垢的死角；为什么有些贫民窟长久保持原样有些不顾财政和政府的反对不断生成；是什么让城市不断变换他们的中心；什么是一个城市的临近地区，它有担当了什么样的一种职能。简而言之，我要写的是城市在现实生活中是如何运作的，因为这是学习规划原则和怎样用改建来提升城市的社会和经济活力的唯一方法，通过这样的学习，也能知道什么样的原则和实践会扼杀这些活力。(2002.2.9 benbentiao 译)

(3) There is a wistful myth that if only we had enough money to spend—the figure is usually put at a hundred billion dollars—we could wipe out all our slums in ten years, reverse decay in the great, dull, gray belts that were yesterday’s and day-before-yesterday’s suburbs, anchor the wandering middle class and its wandering tax money, and perhaps even solve the traffice problem.(2002.2.9)

(4) But look what we have built with the first several billions: Low-income projects that become worse centers of delinquency, vandalism and general social hopelessness than the slums they were supposed to replace. Middle-income housing projects which are truly marvels of dullness and regimentation sealed against any buoyancy or vitality of city life. Luxury housing projects that mitigate their inanity, or try to, with a vapid vulgarity. Cultural centers that are unable to support a good bookstore. Civic centers that are avoided by everyone but bums, who have fewer choices of loitering place than others. Commercial centers that are lackluster imitations of standardized suburban chain-store shopping. Promenades that go from no place to nowhere and have no promenaders. . Expressways that eviscerate great cities. This is not the rebuilding of cities. This is the sacking of cities.(2000.2.9) （3）有一种理想的“神话”，前提是我们拥有足够的资金——通常得上百亿美金——我们便可在十年内清除所有的贫困区，隐藏起从前城市中那些庞大、阴暗、沉闷地带内所呈现出的衰败景象，转而安置飘泊的中产阶级，沉淀及其附带的游离资金，这样甚至可以解决交通问题。(2002.2.10 永远的埃及译)

（4）现在看看我们用一开始的几十亿作了什么：低收入居民区变成了错误，破坏艺术行为和社会绝望的中心，代替了贫民窟给社会带来的影响。中层收入居民区的无趣和对一切轻快和有活力的城市生活的管辖让人觉得惊奇。奢华的小别墅妄图用一种粗俗的设计手法区减轻他们的愚蠢。文化中心里不能找到一个好的书店。除了流浪汉谁都不愿意去城市中心，因为那里是少数几个能供他们闲逛的场所。商业中心是标准的郊区连锁店的翻版。散步道不知位于何处，当然见不到散步的人，高速公路变成了城市的精华部分。这不是对城市的改造，这是对城市的毁坏。(2002.2.11 benbentiao 译)