Detroit, in the minds of many people, looks like something from the film Gran Torino, in which Clint Eastwood’s retired car worker defiantly manicures his lawn and flies an American flag as the city around him descends into chaos. With its fraying social fabric and the imposition of an emergency manager to cope with its collapsing finances, it would be easy to argue a city that was a global centre of carmaking and musical innovation 50 years ago has passed the point of no return.
在许多人的心目中，底特律就像是电影《老爷车》(Gran Torino)中描述的那种场景——在这部影片中，克林特•伊斯特伍德(Clint Eastwood)饰演的车厂退休工人在他周围的整个城市陷入混乱之际，顽强地修剪自家的草坪并悬挂美国国旗。随着底特律的社会结构逐步瓦解，随着一位危机处理专员被派来处理其日渐崩溃的财政状况，我们会很容易地认为，这座50年前曾经是全球汽车制造和音乐创新中心的城市已经无可挽回。
Easy, yes; but wrong. Detroit’s days as a manufacturing powerhouse – like those of many industrial cities in America, Europe and elsewhere – are irrevocable. But its downtown is rebounding, thanks to the kind of central location, affordable property, improved efficiency and productivity also bringing people and businesses back to struggling former industrial hubs such as Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
容易是没错，但这种看法是错误的。与美欧乃至其它地方的许多工业城市一样，底特律作为制造业中心的日子已经一去不复返了。但底特律的市中心正在恢复元气，得益于其所处的中心位置和价格适中的房产，以及效率和生产率的提高，这些因素也让居民和企业重新回到了克利夫兰和匹兹堡等挣扎中的老工业中心。
Thousands of residents, including designers, techies and music makers, have moved to Detroit’s old central business district. They are drawn, to borrow a phrase from Jane Jacobs’ 1961 work, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, to the old buildings new ideas require. More than 40 per cent of the young adults living there are university educated, according to a recent report, compared with 11 per cent for the city as a whole, 29 per cent for the state of Michigan and 31 per cent for the nation. The urban centre is home to more than 600 new companies and draws 10.5m visitors to its leisure attractions each year.
包括设计师、技术人员和音乐创作者在内的数千居民已经搬到了底特律旧日的中央商务区。借用简•雅各布斯(Jane Jacobs) 1961年的著作《美国大城市的死与生》(The Death and Life of Great American Cities)中的话来说，他们被产生新创意所需的旧房子吸引。最近一份报告显示，在底特律市中心居住的年轻人当中，逾40%是大学毕业生，相比之下，整座城市的这一比例是11%，密歇根州是29%，全美是31%。底特律市中心是逾600家新公司的所在地，每年还吸引1050万游客来此休闲度假。
The nascent turnround is driven by a coalition of profit-led entrepreneurs, philanthropic foundations and grassroots groups unhindered by city government. They offer a distinctive model of revival from which cities in the US and beyond can learn.
追逐利润的企业家、慈善基金会以及不受市政府束缚的草根组织一起推动了这种方兴未艾的转变。他们提供了独特的复兴模式，美国以及海外的城市都可以从中借鉴。
For example, motivated by good business sense and community altruism, local company Quicken Loans has moved thousands of jobs from the suburbs to downtown. It bought millions of square feet of office and residential space with access to good transport links, much of it for pennies on the dollar. A consortium of local businesses has provided funding for 100 new police cars. Foundations and companies have pledged $100m for a new light rail system linking emerging neighbourhoods along the reviving economic spine. The Kresge Foundation’s Detroit Future City initiative will provide $150m to create more concentrated economic development, reuse 100,000 vacant plots and add parks.
例如，在敏锐的商业嗅觉和社区利他精神的激励下，当地企业Quicken Loans将数千岗位从郊区搬到市中心。该公司在交通便利区域购买了数百万平方英尺的办公室和住宅，其中大多是以极低价格买到的。一个由本地企业组成的财团为100辆新警车提供了融资。基金会和企业承诺为一个新的轻轨系统提供1亿美元的资金——这个轻轨系统将沿着正在复兴的经济脊梁，把新兴的街区连接起来。Kresge基金会发起的“底特律未来城市”(Detroit Future City)项目将提供1.5亿美元来进行集约化的经济发展，重新利用10万个空置地块，并增加公园数量。
Unemployment remains high, much of the city is distressed and the murder rate hovers near record levels. A cynic might say business interests and corporate urban pioneers are merely colonising the one economically viable district, leaving those in distressed areas to the mercy of its broke, powerless government. Indeed, a political divide has opened up between the largely young, white, educated “new” Detroit and the mostly African-American, undereducated and unemployed longstanding citizens.
底特律失业率依然高企，大部分地区衰败不堪，谋杀率徘徊在历史高点附近。爱嘲讽的人可能会说，商业利益和企业城市先驱只是在利用经济可行区域，而把那些衰败地区留给软弱无力的破产政府。的确，政治上的分歧已经出现：一方是“新”底特律人，基本上由受过教育的年轻白人组成；另一方是底特律的长期居民，他们大多是教育程度不高而且失业的非裔美国人。
Nonetheless, if it can be sustained, the downtown revival will be a first step to creating the jobs, economic activity and tax revenues needed to underwrite broader recovery. The city’s economic future will then be driven by its ability to deepen the creative component of all its industries. It must focus on turning low-skilled, low-paid service jobs into family-supporting jobs by tapping workers’ knowledge and skills. A new urban social compact is needed to upgrade underfunded schools, and to train and connect more people to the emerging downtown economy. This too can be a model for other distressed cities, as well as for more affluent ones such as New York, San Francisco and London with similar (if not higher) levels of inequality.
然而，如果市中心的复兴得以持续，它将创造就业、经济活动和税收收入，从而成为全面复苏的第一步。就此而言，底特律经济未来的推动因素，将是其深化所有产业的创意组成部分的能力。它必须致力于将低技能、低报酬的服务型工作，转变为足以养家的工作，充分利用工人的知识和技能。它需要新的城市社会契约来改造经费不足的学校，培训并延揽更多的人参与新兴的市中心经济。这也可以成为其他衰败城市，以及纽约、旧金山和伦敦等较为富足但具有类似（或者更高）不平等程度的城市的榜样。
Downtown developments, together with the wider region’s economic assets, put Detroit on a better economic footing than it has enjoyed for a couple of generations. The resurgence at its heart provides grounds for real hope tempered with cautious optimism.
市中心的开发项目，加上整个地区的经济资产，让底特律获得两代人以来最好的经济立足点。底特律市中心的复兴让人谨慎乐观地对未来抱以期许。