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🎁 中英文稿：
These days the worst urban decay is found not in big cities but in small ones
當下，小城市而非大城市的都市衰敗現象最為嚴重
WHEN recession hit Hartlepool in 2008 it hit hard, says Billy Reid, the owner of a local key-cutting and engraving business. His stall in the shopping centre—an ugly grey 1970s box that dominates the centre of the town—sits between gaps where other firms have disappeared. 「We lost the Woolworths, we lost Superdrug. I've got two staff and just this year for the first time I've had to cut their hours,」 he says. Nobody is moving house and nobody has much money—so few people need keys cut or gifts engraved.
2008年的金融危機對哈特爾浦造成了嚴重的影響，Billy Reid，當地一個鑰匙配製和鐫刻店的老闆說，他經營的攤位是個20世紀80年代的小房間，灰色牆壁，實在不怎麼好看，不過那時市中心的房子大抵都是這樣的。當時，周圍別的商店都已關門停業「伍爾沃斯關門了，超級藥房也關門了，我有兩個員工，今年我不得不開始減少他們的工作時間」他說，沒人在搬家，也沒人錢多，所以很少有人需要配鑰匙或給禮物鐫刻。

Britain's economy is finally crawling out of recession. On October 8th the IMF sharply upgraded its growth forecast for 2013. But the recovery is far from evenly spread. In London and the south-east, house prices and employment are soaring. In places such as Hartlepool, a former shipbuilding and steel town in Teesside, on the north-east coast of England, there is precious little sign of improvement. The local unemployment rate is almost twice the national average, at 13%. Last year there was nobody in work in 30% of the town's working-age households.

英國經濟終於慢慢的走出衰退，10月8日，國際貨幣基金組織大大的提高了2013年經濟預期，但是經濟復甦還遠沒有穩健均勻的展開，在倫敦和英國東南部， 房價和就業都在迅猛飆升，在類似於哈特爾浦（位於英國東北海岸的提賽德的一個昔日造船和產鋼的城鎮）的地方，幾乎沒有復甦的跡象。當地失業率高達13%，幾乎是全國水平的兩倍。去年該城鎮30%的適齡工作家庭成員都出於失業狀態。
Partly, this reflects the extraordinary success of London and continuing deindustrialisation in the north of England. Areas such as Teesside have been struggling, on and off, since the first world war. But whereas over the past two decades England's big cities have developed strong service-sector economies, its smaller industrial towns have continued their relative decline. Hartlepool is typical of Britain's rust belt in that it has grown far more slowly than the region it is in. So too is Wolverhampton, a small city west of Birmingham, and Hull, a city in east Yorkshire.
在某種程度上，這反映了倫敦非比尋常的成功和英國北部的不斷擴延的逆城市化現象，像提賽德的區域自一戰以來就經常處在掙扎邊緣， 然而，在過去20年間，強大的服務業經濟在英國大城市蒸蒸日上，而在小城市卻江河日下。。哈特爾浦 就是典型的一個拖後退的城鎮，它比他所在的區域發展速度慢的多， 同樣的還有沃爾夫漢普頓, 伯明翰西部的一個小城市；赫爾，約克郡東部的一個城市。
In Hartlepool, 28% of shops are empty, according to the Local Data Company, a private research firm. Chain stores, widely blamed for destroying high streets in richer bits of Britain, are mostly absent. In nearby Middlesbrough, whole streets of terraced houses are boarded up—the legacy of a failed plan to renew the market by knocking down old houses and building new ones. In Hull, teenagers in baseball caps and tracksuits wander aimlessly.
據一傢俬營調查研究公司「當地數據公司」統計，在哈特爾浦, 28%的商戶都關門了，廣受詬病其佔領了倫敦富有區域高檔街區的連鎖商店也大多被空置了，在附近的Middleborough， 整條街聯立的房子都被空置，這是曾經計畫拆除舊房改建新房以復興市場的計畫失敗的產物。而在Hull, 帶著棒球帽穿著運動杉的青少年到處漫無目的的遊蕩。
The divide is likely to widen more quickly over the next decade. From around 2001 until 2010, under the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, much of Britain's growth came from higher government spending. More and better-paid government employees—and welfare recipients—provided an adrenalin shot for the private sector.
這種差異在接下來的十年內很很可能會擴大。 從2001年到2010年在勞工黨托尼布萊爾和戈登布朗政府的統治之下，英國的增長在很大程度上來源於更大的政府支出-- 公職人員在數量上和收入報酬上都有了提高，福利惠及更多家戶，這就給私營領域帶來了動力。
Today that process has reversed, as the government tries to cut its way out of an enormous fiscal deficit. Welfare spending and council budgets are falling especially quickly in poorer small towns. In Wolverhampton, the local council has announced plans to sack 1,000 staff by 2015—around 20% of its workforce. In Hartlepool, welfare cuts are worth ￡712 ($1,135) a year from each working-age resident, according to researchers at Sheffield Hallam University.
而今天，政府開始執行完全相反的財政策略，著手削減高額的財政赤字。一些相對貧窮落後的小城鎮的福利和財政預計明顯減少。，在政府努力削減政府支出以緩解巨大的政府財政赤字的過程中，福利消費和議會支出銳減尤其是在一些相對貧窮的小城鎮中。在沃爾夫漢普頓, 當地的議會已經宣佈將在2015年之前辭退1000名，即將近20%左右的政府公職人員。據謝菲爾德海蘭姆大學研究員，在哈特爾浦, 每年從每個工作適齡居民福利中的削減額有將近712英鎊，即將近1135美元。
During the boom years, the hope was that injections of money from the national treasury, the European Union and the National Lottery could spruce up post-industrial towns and attract new businesses, easing people off welfare into work. In struggling towns all over Britain, wave-roofed new libraries, civic centres and sixth-form colleges shot up. In Hartlepool, the docks were converted into a pleasure marina. The names of these buildings reflected the edginess of the architecture. Hull's aquarium is called 「The Deep」; West Bromwich, near Wolverhampton, got a lavish arts centre named 「The Public」.
在經濟全勝時期，人們寄希望於來自國庫，歐盟，和國彩的資金注入能夠改變後工業化的城鎮的面貌，吸引新的投資，為沒有福利的居民帶來工作。在英國處於掙扎中的城鎮，波紋狀屋頂的圖書館，市政中心，和預科大學都關門了，在哈特爾浦，碼頭被用作休閒散步道，這些建築的名稱也反映了該建築的先潮特色。赫爾的海族館被稱為「深度」在沃爾夫漢普頓的西勃朗姆威奇 有一個奢華的藝術中心被稱為「公眾」
This made tough towns somewhat better to live in, and helped soften rough reputations. But it did little to reverse long-standing economic decline. And the slump has undone some of the progress that was made. 「The Public」 will shortly close: the council cannot afford to pay for its upkeep. On the edge of the marina in Hartlepool, an ugly wasteland sits behind a sign advertising 「luxury sea view apartments」 which were never built. In Wolverhampton, a car park ringed by empty shops marks the spot where Irish investors pulled out of building a ￡300m shopping centre in 2008.
這些做法讓陷於困難的城鎮更有利於居民的居住，也幫助減緩了他們不好的名聲，但是長遠看來，這對於扭轉經濟衰退幾乎是沒有任何效用的，經濟的萎靡已經抵銷了之前的經濟復甦。由於地方議會無法支付該日常維護費，藝術館「公眾」將會被短暫的關停，在哈特爾浦的散步碼頭的邊緣，在一個寫有「奢華海景房」的廣告牌背後是一片扎眼的荒地，「海景房」被擱淺了。在沃爾夫漢普頓， 有一個被空置的商店環繞的停車場，正是在這個地方，本來是要建一座價值3000萬英鎊的購物中心，但是最後愛爾蘭的投資者在2008年撤出了資金。
To turn around, these towns will have to attract a reliable stream of outside money. In this, Wolverhampton has had the best luck recently. The i54 business park outside the city will soon be home to a new Jaguar Land Rover engine factory, which will employ 1,400 workers. Other manufacturing companies nearby may be picking up, too. David Sedgley, the founder of Roadlink International, a firm that rebuilds brake parts for trucks, says that demand has soared in the past few months.
為了是經濟回轉，這些城鎮不得不向外界吸引可靠的資金流，在這方面，沃爾夫漢普頓 最近倒是運氣不錯，城外的i54商業開發區馬上就會開一家新的美洲路虎發動機工廠，這將解決當地1400人的就業問題，其他的一些製造公司也會興起，david sedgley, 一家叫roadink 國際的重裝卡車剎車零件的公司創始人說：在過去的幾週內，消費者的需求飆升。
A factory will sustain local shops. But it may not get many local people off the dole. Dan Wainwright, a journalist at the Wolverhampton Express and Star, worries that jobs at the JLR plant will go to skilled engineers who will commute in from pretty villages in Worcestershire, rather than to the unemployed in Wolverhampton. The company's factory in Solihull, near Birmingham, draws workers from as far away as Wales.Fully 22% of people in Wolverhampton have no qualifications—against a national figure of 9%. As in Hull and Hartlepool, while not all the local schools are bad, their overall performance is appalling. Wolverhampton at least, unlike Hull and Hartlepool, is relatively well-placed, with direct and relatively frequent trains to London and Birmingham. Teesside and east Yorkshire struggle from their geographical isolation—getting to nearby cities, yet alone London, is painfully slow.
一個工廠將保證當地的商戶維持正常營業，但是可能卻不能幫助很多當地居民維持生計，Dan wainwright 是沃爾夫漢普頓地區一家叫express and star的媒體的一個記者，他擔心捷豹路虎工廠將會招聘來自伍斯特郡小村莊裡的技術嫻熟的工程師而非沃爾夫漢普頓的失業人群。JLR 在伯明翰附近的索利赫爾的工廠吸引了遠達來自威爾士的工人，沃爾夫漢普頓有22%的人是沒有足夠的工作資格，而全國範圍為9%，至於在赫爾 和哈特爾浦，儘管當地學校不是都很糟糕，但整體素質水平確實不敢恭維，但是他們整體表現是很可怕的。不像赫爾和哈特爾浦，沃爾夫漢普頓相對來說還是很有秩序的，從該地頻繁有直接或間接到達倫敦和伯明翰的火車，而提賽德和東約克郡卻深受其封閉地理位置之苦，從該地到附近城市比如倫敦都是很慢的。
And even with growth, the most ambitious and best-educated people will still tend to leave places like Hull. Their size, location and demographics means that they will never offer the sorts of restaurants or shops that the middle classes like. In America, cities that decline must redefine themselves, says Bruce Katz of the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think-tank. Like a man who has lost weight, they have to get new clothes that fit—shrinking their boundaries and ambitions. Britain's failing towns struggle on indefinitely in their old industrial shape and size.
雖然赫爾等地經濟還在增長，但是當地最有事業心和受最好教育的人們都傾向於離開該地，因為受該地的城市規模，地理位置，人口數量等因素的制約，這些地方無法提供中產階級所愛好的那種酒店和商場。Bruce Katz來自基於華盛頓的名叫Brookings institution 的智庫，他說，就像一個人減肥了就必須買適合於他的新衣服一樣，在美國，如果一個城市在衰退，它就必須重新定位自己，縮小他們的界限和抱負。但是英國的衰退的城鎮卻在自己過去的工業化的區域和規模中做無休止的掙扎。

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