城市化是有益于社会的印钞机

Joan Clos, one-time doctor and former mayor of Barcelona, is hoping to encourage politicians to see cities not as problems but as opportunities for lifting entire populations from poverty.

医生出身、担任过巴塞罗那市长的霍安•克洛斯(Joan Clos)希望鼓励政治家们将城市看成是使广大民众摆脱贫困的机遇之地，而不是问题的来源。

Urbanisation is not a passive outcome of development but a creator of value . . . [it] is like a money-printing machine, says Dr Clos, executive director of UN-Habitat, which studies human settlements.

城市化并不是城市发展所产生的被动结果，而是创造价值的过程……城市化就像一台印钞机，克洛斯表示，他目前担任联合国人居署(UN-Habitat)执行主任，该机构主要研究人类居住问题。

The organisation has been looking at how to cater for the urban population explosion.

联合国人居署近年来一直在研究如何应对城市人口爆炸。

From now until 2050 we’re going to double the current level of urbanisation.

从现在开始到2050年，我们现有的城市化水平将会翻一番。

Another 3bn people will be living in cities, says Dr Clos.

未来还将有30亿人迁至城市生活，克洛斯说道。

Most thinking and writing about urbanisation is about the problems, poverty, housing and so on — there’s not enough about the value that the urban tissue generates.

绝大多数关于城市化的思考和著述都着眼于城市化所带来的问题、贫困、住房紧张等等——对于城市所创造出的价值却缺乏充分的探讨。

The idea that cities can generate wealth and help tackle rising inequality are messages he intends to convey to delegates at Habitat III in Quito, Ecuador, in October.

城市能够创造财富、帮助化解收入不平等日益加剧的问题，是克洛斯希望传递给第三次联合国住房和城市可持续发展大会(Habitat III)与会代表的观点，此次大会将于今年10月在厄瓜多尔首都基多(Quito)召开。

This, the latest in a series of conferences that are held every 20 years, will examine the link between urban planning and the human condition.

作为每二十年召开一次的系列会议中最新的一届，本次大会将探讨城市规划与人类生活状况之间的关系。

For example, in London, New York and Paris there has been increasing economic segregation and exclusion of the poor from their centres.

例如，在伦敦（见上图）、纽约和巴黎等城市，经济因素导致的社会割裂日益加剧，穷人被排挤出了城市中心地区。

In the UK capital there has been much reporting of how the poor and even the middle classes are being priced out.

在英国首都伦敦，有大量关于穷人甚至中产阶级因无力承担昂贵的生活成本被迫迁离市区的报道。

Many experts say there is no effective UK social housing policy, which they argue has been handed over to the private and charitable sectors despite the need for government and municipal attention.

很多专家表示，英国缺乏行之有效的社会住房政策，相关领域问题被交给了私人部门和慈善组织解决，虽然这一状况急需得到国家和市政当局的关注。

The irony, Dr Clos says, is London was arguably the first world city to seriously address housing in the 19th century.

克洛斯指出，这其中的讽刺之处在于，伦敦可以称得上是第一个严肃应对住房问题的国际大都市，早在十九世纪就出台了相关政策。

Tackling housing need was at the centre of strategy and much of the housing stock created in the centre of cities has retained its desirability.

满足住房需求曾是相关对策的核心内容，而在城市中心建造的大多数房屋直到今天仍然适宜居住。

If we look at public housing in London, or in Amsterdam or Vienna from the 19th century, we see that it was so successful that it has now become desirable for the bourgeoisie, says Dr Clos.

如果我们考察十九世纪以来伦敦、阿姆斯特丹或者维也纳的公共住房，我们会发现它们是如此成功，以至于现已变得对中产阶级颇有吸引力，克洛斯称。

Today’s mass housing is not economically active, it is a dormitory, outside the city, on poor land and poorly located.

如今的公共住宅在经济上并不吸引人，这种住宅只是宿舍，位于城市郊外，环境和地理位置都很糟糕。

It is stigmatised and the result is, when someone becomes slightly better off, they leave, only to be replaced with more poor people.

住在这种房中让人感到屈辱，由此导致的结果是，一旦个体的境况略有好转，他们就会选择离开，取代他们入住的是更加贫困的人。

It stays poor.

这一住宅区也就因此一直陷于贫困。

Examples of such places can be found across the globe, from Paris to Detroit.

从巴黎到底特律，类似这种公共住宅区的例子在世界各地都能找到。

However, he praises some US cities such as Los Angeles, which is attempting to revitalise its once-seedy downtown and suburban centres.

但克洛斯称赞了洛杉矶等一些美国城市，洛杉矶正试图重振一度破败不堪的城市中心商业区和市郊中心区。

Dr Clos says successful urban policies need to be set nationally and have three elements: rules and regulations, urban design and financial planning.

克洛斯指出，成功的城市化政策应在国家层面制定，并同时具备三大要素：规则和监管、城市规划以及财务安排。

We talk of the rule of law, he says, but we also need a rule of urban law.

我们讨论依法执政，但我们同样需要城市发展的相关法规。

There might be inadequate legislation, or too much unclear legislation, or a lack of enforcement.

在这一领域或许存在立法不足、法规条文中不够明确的地方过多以及执法不力等问题。

We need regulations to ensure we have decent public space, we have urban building rights and development, and we have building codes and standards to regulate quality.

我们需要监管力量来确保我们拥有体面的公共空间，保障我们拥有城市建设和开发权，同时保证我们具备建筑准则和标准来规范建筑质量。

Public space is especially important to the less well-off who may lack gardens and other private areas for recreation and leisure.

公共空间对于那些不太富裕的人群而言尤为重要，这一群体可能缺乏花园以及其他可供娱乐休闲的私人空间。

The final issue is the financial plan, he says.

最后一个问题是财务安排，他表示。

There can be no successful urbanisation without a budget.

成功的城市化必须做好预算。

We need to think about local authority taxation systems as well as some subsidies from central government to sustain the city.

我们必须考虑地方政府的税收体系以及中央政府为维持城市发展所提供的某些补助。

Since joining UN-Habitat in Nairobi, Dr Clos has become embroiled in a controversy.

自从加入总部设在内罗毕的联合国人居署以来，克洛斯就卷入了一场争议。

His efforts to transform the organisation, including eliminating senior staff privileges and reducing costs by 40 per cent, were followed by allegations of misconduct and racism, which Dr Clos’ spokesman says are false and unsubstantiated.

他为推动联合国人居署改革所做的努力，包括取消高级职员特权以及将办公成本缩减40%，使他遭到了行为不当和种族歧视的指控，这些指控被克洛斯的发言人驳斥为虚假和毫无根据的。

An official UN investigation was announced earlier this year but it has yet to publish any conclusions.

今年早些时候联合国宣布对此事启动一项官方调查，但到目前为止尚未公布任何结论。

Dr Clos’ supporters may feel that an ideal city might look like Barcelona, where he was mayor from 1996 to 2006.

克洛斯的支持者们可能认为，巴塞罗那或许就是理想城市所应有的样子，克洛斯曾在1996至2006年间担任巴塞罗那市长。

This now has generous streets and dense, robust city blocks that embody the idea of mixed-use development and have been able to absorb changes in the way the city works, as well as parks, squares and a beach that was once a dock.

如今的巴塞罗那拥有宽阔的街道以及密集而富有活力的城市街区——这种布局体现出了混合用途开发的理念，并且能够吸收城市运转方式的变化——还有公园、广场以及由一座码头改造而成的海滩。

Although Dr Clos criticises the technocratic approach of Asian cities he says their success cannot be ignored.

虽然克洛斯批评亚洲城市技术挂帅的发展方式，但他指出这些城市所取得的成就不应被忽略。

China has, according to the World Bank, taken 600m people out of poverty thanks to urbanisation between 1981 and 2004.

来自世界银行(World Bank)的数据显示，中国依靠1981至2004年间的城市化进程，带领6亿民众摆脱了贫困。

Dr Clos says this is a staggering testament to the power of city planning to create wealth and reduce inequality — a population larger than that of Europe has been lifted from subsistence farming to urban existence in barely a generation.

克洛斯指出，这是一个令人震惊的例证，展现出了城市规划在创造财富和降低收入不平等方面的巨大能量——仅仅用了一代人的时间，人数超过欧洲总人口的民众就因城市化而脱离了勉强糊口的农业生产，享受到了城市生活。