City Sparkles After Decades of Change
數十年蛻變 波士頓發光
By Katharine Q. Seelye

BOSTON – During the 1988 presidential campaign, Vice President George Bush famously shined a spotlight on the “open sewer” that was Boston Harbor. He blamed his opponent, Governor Michael S. Dukakis of Massachusetts, for failing to clean it up and called the harbor, which was choked with sludge and contaminated with chemicals, the dirtiest body of water in the country.
1988年競選總統時，時任副總統的老布希眾所周知製造了一個焦點－波士頓港是個「無蓋下水道」。他指責對手，麻州州長杜凱吉斯不事清理，並稱這個汙泥淤塞、化學品汙染嚴重的港口，骯髒程度全美居冠。

Today the harbor is the pride of Boston, a playground for pleasure boaters and even swimmers as it glistens like a necklace, ringed by glassy towers, upscale restaurants and pricey hotels.
時至今日，波士頓港已成波士頓之光，是遊艇主人、甚至游泳者的遊樂場，它有如閃閃動人的一條項鍊，由明亮的摩天大樓、高檔餐廳和昂貴飯店串成。

The transformation of the harbor from embarrassment to showcase is emblematic of the larger transformation of the city over the last quarter-century.
從不堪變成模範，波士頓港的改造，是整個波士頓過去25年從事更大改造的代表性建樹。

For most of that time, Mayor Thomas M. Menino, 71, has been at the helm. Although he had nothing to do with the harbor cleanup, which was ordered by the courts, he maximized its potential by encouraging nearby development.
那段時期的多數時候，波士頓是由現年71歲的市長梅尼諾主政。雖然港口清理與他無關，是法院下令疏浚，但港口因他鼓勵周遭發展，而將潛力發揮到極致。

“In the ’70s and ’80s, cities were thought to be dying, when high crime, out-migration and despair were the order of the day,” said Robert Sampson, an urban sociologist at Harvard. “But Boston has really blossomed,” he said.
哈佛大學都市社會學家桑普森說：「在70和80年代，有些城市在人們眼裡正在走向死亡，犯罪率高、人口外移、悲觀絕望是那些年頭的常態。」他說：「但是波士頓可真的開花結果了。」

The challenge of maintaining the momentum of the Menino era now falls to Martin J. Walsh, the city’s first new mayor in a generation. When Mr. Menino took office in 1993, Boston was limping its way out of a recession and still reeling from the crisis over school busing, which had worsened race relations and accelerated white flight to the suburbs. After peaking at 800,000 in 1950, the city’s population had plunged to 563,000 in 1980.
讓梅尼諾年代的動力獲得延續的挑戰，落在波士頓一個世代以來第一個新市長華許身上。梅尼諾1993年上任時，波士頓正步履蹣跚走出衰退，而且還有學童混合就讀接送計畫造成的危機罩頂。校車問題使種族關係惡化，白人加速遷居郊區。波士頓人口於1950年達到高峰的80萬人，1980年銳減至56萬3000人。

By the mid-’80s, people started drifting back to the city. By the ’90s, more immigrants began settling here. As people nationwide increasingly chose cities over suburbs, Boston drew graduate students, empty-nesters, urban professionals and young families.
80年代中期，人口開始回流城市。90年代時，定居此地的外來人口增加。在全美人口多選擇城市而非郊區居住之際，波士頓也吸引來研究生、空巢老人、都市專業人士和年輕家庭。

The population today is 636,000. Boston had a faster rate of growth than other magnet cities like New York and San Francisco, though housing costs were almost as high. The city’s complexion has changed, too. Today blacks, Latinos and Asian-Americans collectively outnumber whites. Last year’s election to replace Mr. Menino included black and Latino candidates; although they did not win, their endorsements of Mr. Walsh were crucial to his election.
波士頓現今人口為63萬6000人。雖然房屋成本與其他具磁吸能力的城市如紐約、舊金山幾乎一樣高，波士頓成長卻更快。該市的膚色也變了。今天，黑人、拉美裔和亞裔美人的總數多過白人。去年選舉梅尼諾的接班人時，候選人有黑人也有拉美裔，儘管他們落選，他們對華許的支持卻是華許當選的關鍵。

Boston’s boom was driven in part by a new dynamism among its universities and research institutions as technology expanded and the knowledge-based economy developed. Those institutions had always been here, but as Paul Grogan, the president of the Boston Foundation, which provides grants to nonprofit organizations, put it, “The world changed in a way that assigned a new value to them.”
隨著技術的擴張以及知識經濟的發展，波士頓欣欣向榮部分歸功於大學和研究機構的新活力。這些機構一直都在那裡，然而正如提供補助金給非營利組織的「波士頓基金會」的總裁葛羅根所言，「這個世界改變的方式，賦予這些機構新的價值。」

Another major impetus for growth in Boston was the cleanup of the harbor. It was prompted by environmental concerns, not a push for economic development. “But it turns out to be, next to the hospitals and universities, the biggest economic driver we have had,” Mr. Grogan said.
促使波士頓成長的另一個主要動力是港口的清理。清港是出於對環保的關切，不是為推動經濟發展。葛羅根說：「結果是，它是僅次於醫院與大學，我們所擁有的最大經濟驅動力。」

One problem that Mr. Menino has taken the blame for is neglecting to untangle the city’s spaghetti pile of streets. “This city is terrible,” Mr. Menino told The Boston Globe. “These are all old cow paths. We just enlarged them and made them roadways. It’s probably my fault.”
波士頓宛如義大利細麵條的街道，是梅尼諾引以自責的一個問題。梅尼諾告訴「波士頓環球報」：「這個城市糟透了。全是些舊時代的牛道。我們做的只是將它拓寬成為道路。這應該是我的錯。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/06/us/two-decades-of-change-have-boston-sparkling.html

2014-03-04聯合報/G5版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 王麗娟譯 原文參見紐時週報十一版左