歐洲打響反夜生活戰
If this summer you pay a visit to Milan, the fashion center of Italy, make sure you’re not caught slurping ice cream in the streets after midnight. Doing so is now against the city’s law.
如果今年夏天你造訪意大利時尚之都米蘭，那麼切記不要因爲午夜後在街上進食冰淇淋而被警察逮到。如今在米蘭，這樣的行爲是違法的。
A new law was passed by Milan’s city council early last Month, banning the sale of take-away food and drinks after midnight in bars and restaurants in some districts famous for their nightlife scene. It’s purpose? To discourage “the formation of nocturnal assemblies on pavements outside these businesses”, the city council said in a statement.
上個月月初，米蘭市政府頒佈了一項新的法律——嚴禁一些夜生活集聚地的酒吧和餐廳在午夜後向人們出售酒水和外賣食品。這麼做的目的是什麼呢？米蘭市議會發表聲明稱，該舉措是爲了遏制“商鋪外人行道上的夜間集會”。
The law has given rise to a number of protests. It reminds people of New York City’s ban on large-sized soda drinks and is another example of the government trying to regulate people’s lives too much. However, if you take into consideration the country’s bad economy and its high unemployment rate, the local government’s fear of “nocturnal assemblies” may be understandable.
這項法律遭到了許多人的抗議。這不禁讓人想起紐約的“大包裝碳酸飲料禁令”，同時這一舉措也是政府設法干預居民生活的又一案例。但如果你考慮到這個國家低迷的經濟以及居高不下的失業率，那麼對於當地政府對“夜間集會”的恐懼就不難理解了。
In fact, Milan’s law is only the strangest of a host of clampdowns on nightlife in European cities that have cropped up recently, according to a report by The Atlantic. Madrid’s city center was declared a “low-noise zone” last September and the city council has been refusing to issue bar and club licenses ever since.
據美國《大西洋月刊》報道，事實上，近來歐洲各城市紛紛出臺了各種古怪的夜生活禁令，而米蘭的這條法律不過是其中最令人咂舌的一條罷了。去年9月，馬德里市政府宣佈將市中心劃爲“低噪音區”。從那以後，該市政府一直拒絕向酒吧和夜總會頒發營業許可證。
In Paris, tight police control of nightlife led national newspaper Le Monde to call the city the “European Capital of Boredom” back in 2009. The newspaper cited a study by the Parisian administration, which found that it was much harder to get club licenses in Paris than in London, Berlin, Amsterdam or Barcelona.
巴黎警方嚴管夜生活，此舉使得法國全國性報紙《法國世界報》在2009年將巴黎戲稱爲“歐洲無聊之都”。該報援引的巴黎市政府的一項研究顯示，要想在巴黎取得夜總會營業許可證，要比在倫敦、柏林、阿姆斯特丹以及巴塞羅那難得多。
But things are not much better for those supposed nightlife capitals. In Germany, the national performance rights group GEMA is trying to make bars and clubs pay a commission on all music they play. If the move goes ahead, it will force small businesses to close their doors.
但在一些被稱爲“夜生活之都”的城市，情況也不是那麼樂觀。在德國，全國音樂作品演出權與複製權管理協會GEMA正試圖要求酒吧和夜總會爲播放的所有音樂繳納使用費。一旦該要求被通過，將致使一些小規模夜店不得不關門大吉。
Why do European cities deal so harshly with nightlife? The Atlantic says that it may be because Europe’s population is getting older and less tolerant of late night activities within the neighborhood. A high unemployment rate, especially among the young, also means that few have a reason to get up early and many stay out late.
爲何歐洲各大城市對於夜生活管理如此嚴苛？美國《大西洋月刊》報道稱，這或許是因爲歐洲人口日益老齡化，因此愈發不能容忍街區附近的夜生活。失業率居高不下意味着許多年輕人無所事事，從不早起，很多人都當上了“夜貓子”。
In the past, The Atlantic article explains, bars and clubs flourished in European city centers, which were home to working class populations. But gradually, these people began to move out of the city centers and into the suburbs. Only the wealthy and the social elite, who have no problem getting their voices heard by authorities, can afford to live in urban centers now. But these people don’t go to bars and clubs to socialize. Instead, they see fun-seekers carousing in their neighborhoods as a huge nuisance. They also worry that bars and clubs will make their neighborhoods less desirable and decrease their property’s real estate value.
對此，刊登在《大西洋月刊》上的一篇文章解釋道，過去，酒吧和夜總會在歐洲各大城市的市中心遍地開花，而那裏也正是上班族的居住地。但漸漸地，上班族開始相繼搬出市中心，遷往市郊。現在，只有那些備受政府關注的有錢人和社會精英才能住得起市中心。但是這些人不會到酒吧和夜總會去參加社交活動。相反，他們將這些在自己的地盤“尋歡作樂者”視爲一個大麻煩。同時，他們也擔心酒吧和夜總會將會使他們的街區“掉價”，從而導致他們的房產資本縮水。
