城市创新不是靠运气

Cities are machines for innovation, incubators of ideas born of necessity as people from different places and social classes rub up against each other, creating a space for ideas and inventions. Look at Rome in the first century, Baghdad 1,000 years later, London in the 19th century or New York in the 20th; the city stands out as an engine of progress and modernity.

城市注定是创新的场所、创意的孵化器，因为来自不同地方和社会阶层的人在这里互相碰撞，为创意和发明创造了空间。看看公元1世纪的罗马、11世纪的巴格达、19世纪的伦敦、或者20世纪的纽约吧；城市显然就是进步和现代化的发动机。

Yet a city’s pre-eminence does not necessarily last. Detroit, a city that was only a few decades ago at the forefront of industrial innovation and production, is now an epic example of collapse. So, how to create the conditions that attract and encourage entrepreneurs and ideas?

但一座城市的辉煌不一定会持久。底特律在几十年前还处在工业创新和生产的最前沿，如今却成为一个巨大的衰败典型。那么，我们该如何创造条件来吸引和鼓励创业者、激发创意呢？

Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class and director of the Martin Prosperity Institute in Toronto, believes the first thing governments must do is “get out of the way – stop ‘squelching’ entrepreneurial culture.

《创意新贵》(The Rise of the Creative Class)作者、多伦多马丁繁荣研究所(Martin Prosperity Institute)主任理查德·佛罗里达(Richard Florida)认为，政府要做的第一件事是“不要挡道，即不要‘压制’创业文化。

Why has the creativity of the San Francisco area, epitomised by Silicon Valley, developed while other regions have languished? Is it the concentration of top educational institutions, such as Stanford, or just sheer luck?

为什么以硅谷(Silicon Valley)为代表的旧金山地区的创造力得到了发展，而其它地区却停滞不前？这到底是因为该地区聚集了众多顶尖教育机构——比如斯坦福大学(Stanford)——还是完全因为运气？

Prof Florida argues that the influence of universities is overestimated as a causal factor. However, he concedes, US universities are more effective than counterparts in emerging markets such as China and India “because they encourage the formation of groups and of discussion. The San Francisco Bay Area was always open to art, music, literature and ideas and most places are not open – even if they think they are. These [cities] accrete entrepreneurs over time.

佛罗里达教授认为，大学作为致因的影响力被高估了。不过他承认，美国的大学比中国和印度等新兴市场的大学更富有成果，“因为它们鼓励组建小组和展开讨论。旧金山湾区(San Francisco Bay Area)始终对艺术、音乐、文学和创意持开放态度，而大多数地方却缺乏这种开放性——即使它们自认为开放。慢慢地，创业者便在这些（开放的城市）聚集起来。

That openness needs to extend to people, too. “Fifty per cent of all technology start-ups in Silicon Valley had an immigrant on the founding team, he says. “Steve Jobs’ [biological] father was a Syrian immigrant and we all know about Sergey Brin. He puts the success of cities down to “technology, talent and tolerance.

这种开放性还必须延伸到人身上。佛罗里达教授说：“在硅谷的所有科技初创企业中，创始团队中有移民的占到50%。史蒂夫·乔布斯(Steve Jobs)的生父是叙利亚移民；我们对塞吉·布林(Sergey Brin)的出身也不陌生。他把城市成功的秘诀归纳为“技术、人才和宽容。

Harvard’s Edward Glaeser, in his recent book Triumph of the City, points to the “ability of skilled cities to reinvent themselves. He only has to look across the Charles River at Boston to see a city that has made its living as a trading post, a port, a manufacturing centre, a financial centre, a high-tech hub for producing military equipment, and that has also spawned early computers and the emergence of management consulting.

哈佛大学(Harvard)的爱德华·格莱泽(Edward Glaeser)则在自己的新书《城市的胜利》(Triumph of the City)中，强调了“技能型城市的自我改造能力。他只消望望查尔斯河(Charles River)对岸的波士顿，就能看到一个扮演过商栈、港口、制造业中心、金融中心和军用设备生产高科技中心的城市，早期的电脑以及管理咨询业也是在这座城市诞生的。

Prof Glaeser also points to how industrial Milan reinvented itself in the 2000s as a design capital, after suffering a similar fate to the US rust belt. Its centre and edges have evolved into thriving areas for studio spaces, with the fashion industry, architects and product designers all thriving. The city has also invested in building itself as a desirable location for trade fairs, employing some of the finest architects to design spaces that will attract those in creative industries that match the city’s image.

格莱泽教授还提到，在经历了与美国“夕阳工业区(rust belt)类似的命运之后，工业城市米兰是如何在21世纪头10年重生为设计之都的。米兰的中心和边缘地带都演变为工作室兴旺发达的地区，时尚业、建筑师和产品设计师都获得了蓬勃发展。米兰还斥资把自己打造为商品交易会的理想举办地，聘请顶尖建筑师进行空间设计，以吸引与米兰形象相配的创意产业企业。

Ricky Burdett, director of the Cities centre at the London School of Economics, points to Turin as another Italian city that has re-invented itself. He cites how it “and the broader reg-ion, Piedmont, were proactive as the downturn kicked in, allowing significant investment bet-ween universities, foundations and industry to create high-tech and innovative clusters.

伦敦政治经济学院(London School of Economics)城市中心主任里基·伯德特(Ricky Burdett)认为，都灵是另一个涅磐重生的意大利城市。他指出，都灵“以及皮埃蒙特(Piedmont)大区在陷入衰落的时候采取主动，允许大学、基金会和产业界相互之间大举投资，从而建立起高科技创新集群。

Prof Burdett credits Valentino Castellani and Sergio Chiamparino, Turin’s successive mayors, as cutting through Italy’s notorious red tape to re-zone areas of the city and for attracting European Union funds.

伯德特教授称赞都灵的前后两位市长——瓦伦蒂诺·卡斯泰拉尼(Valentino Castellani)和塞尔吉奥·基安帕里诺(Sergio Chiamparino)——克服了意大利臭名昭著的官僚作风、以重新规划城区，并且吸引到了欧盟(EU)的资金。

State or municipal intervention needs to be smart as well as properly resourced. Prof Glaeser is scathing about the efforts to rehabilitate Detroit, for example, where money was thrown at construction but achieved negligible results.

国家或地方政府的干预既要明智，又要有适当的资源。例如，格莱泽教授对重振底特律的努力提出了尖锐批评，因为大量的资金被砸向建筑业而收效却微乎其微。

By contrast, Pittsburgh has transformed itself from a city decimated by the decline of the steel industry on which it was built into a contemporary metropolis of tech clusters and vibrant neighbourhoods. Its success seems to result from a lucky combination of careful, consistent investment and seed money for start-ups from the Pittsburgh Technology Council (established perceptively early in 1983), while it is an ethnically mixed city of lively and distinctive neighbourhoods defined by good restaurants and cafés and, critically, cheap property prices.

相比之下，匹兹堡则从一个因其基础产业（钢铁业）衰落而失去活力的城市，转型为一个拥有科技集群和活力社区的当代大都市。它的成功似乎来自于两方面的幸运因素：一方面，匹兹堡科技委员会(Pittsburgh Technology Council)（早在1983年就成立了，可谓富有远见）为初创企业提供了谨慎、持续的投资和种子资金；另一方面，匹兹堡是一个各族群混居的城市，拥有充满活力和特色鲜明的社区，这充分体现在那些美妙的餐馆和咖啡馆上，另外极其重要的是，这里房子便宜。

London categorically does not benefit from cheap and plentiful real estate. Yet here, too, there has been an effort to establish a tech cluster on the eastern edge of the city. Old Street’s “Silicon Roundabout was re-c-ently seized on by government ministers as an example of a cluster of suc-cessful urban innovation. It is home to more than 600 tech companies and start-ups, but it grew spontaneously, without municipal intervention.

伦敦显然不具备房价低廉、房子供应充裕的优势。不过，伦敦也努力在东部边缘地带建立科技集群。最近，伦敦老街(Old Street)的“硅盘(Silicon Roundabout)被英国政府的部长们树立为成功城市创新集群的典范。硅盘是600多家科技公司和初创企业的大本营，但它是自发成长起来的，地方政府并没有干预。

On the border between the wealth of the City of London and the fashionable bohemia of Shoreditch and Hoxton, this was a young, funky place to be. Charles Armstrong, an entrepreneur and founder of Trampoline Systems, a social analytic software company, has been based in the area since 2003 and suggests three points that have defined Silicon Roundabout’s success: “Density – the concentration of relevant businesses; diversity – a range of different businesses, not all tech-based. This was a fertile fashion, art and design scene before it was a tech hub; and connections – the network of cafés and bars, networking opportunities and events.

它位于财富之城伦敦金融城(City of London)与时尚不羁的肖尔迪奇区(Shoreditch)和霍克斯顿区(Hoxton)之间，是一处年轻而新潮的地方。社交分析软件公司Trampoline Systems创始人查尔斯·阿姆斯特朗(Charles Armstrong)自2003年起就在此创业，他认为“硅盘的成功来自于三点：“密度——相关行业集中；多样性——拥有多种不同行业，而非只有科技行业，在成为科技中心之前，这里是丰富多彩的时尚、艺术和设计区；社交——咖啡馆和酒吧林立，社交机会和社交活动比比皆是。

Mr Armstrong has also used his background in ethnography to create the Tech City Map, a representation of how start-ups in the area are linked, with tweets popping up on screen in real-time.

阿姆斯特朗还利用他在人种学(ethnography)方面的知识背景，绘制了技术城地图(Tech City Map)，呈现这一地区内初创企业之间的联系，该地图会在屏幕上实时弹出相关的Twitter帖子。

He suggests that the local authority, Hackney, has been helpful in “zoning regulations and in maintaining a balance of businesses, but also in ensuring that in new buildings a proportion of the accommodation needs to be provided as incubator space. This, he says, ensures the continuing availability (at relatively affordable rates) of space for start-ups as the area becomes more popular.

他认为，哈克尼区(Hackney)地方当局在“分区管理、维护行业平衡以及确保把新建筑中的一部分空间用作孵化区方面功不可没。他表示，这一点确保了初创企业能够在该地区人气高涨的今天继续（以相对低廉的价格）在此获得发展空间。

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The UK government is keen to see the phenomenon spread eastward to Stratford as part of the legacy of the huge Olympics regeneration. To this end, it has established Tech City UK, a body whose sole purpose is to encourage companies to move to the area.

英国政府非常希望看到，这一势头能够作为奥运会宏大重建工程的部分遗产，向东扩展至斯特拉特福德(Stratford)。为此，英国政府建立起了英国科技城(Tech City UK)，其唯一目的就是鼓励企业迁到这一地区。

But the same dynamic just is not there. Even if the ￡308m taxpayer-funded Olympic media centre is turned over to tech companies, as has been mooted, it would be difficult to foster the same urban intensity as Shoreditch.

可它就是缺乏那样的吸引力。即使耗费纳税人3.08亿英镑的奥林匹克媒体中心如拟议的那样转交给科技公司，它也很难发展出肖尔迪奇区那样的城市密度。

Innovation can be encouraged, but almost never kick-started from zero – although it will be interesting to see whether the much-touted Songdo in South Korea, billed as the world’s first smart-city, will manage it. The key, it seems, is to spot the first stirrings and fine-tune the conditions.

创新可以被鼓励，但从无到有催生创新几乎是不可能做到的——尽管人们很乐于看看被大肆吹捧为“世界第一智能城的韩国松岛(Songdo)能否做到这一点。看起来，诀窍在于找准最初的“激发点，并对环境进行相应的微调。

Key factors in urban innovation

城市创新的关键因素

A good mayor

好市长

Mayors in Barcelona, Munich, Turin and Bogotá have radically influenced their respective cities’ futures through tenacious and intelligent intervention. Measures have included the reduction of red tape, zoning and construction restrictions, and the careful balancing of social, business and cultural agendas.

巴塞罗那、慕尼黑、都灵和波哥大的市长通过实施坚决、睿智的干预，对城市的未来产生了根本的影响。这些措施包括：减少繁文缛节、实施分区和建筑限制，以及精心平衡社会、商业和文化的议程。

Ethnic mix

民族融合

Cities with a lively, tolerant, changing and cosmopolitan population tend to attract the best people. But big cities need to be wary of ghettoising new arrivals to the peripheries, a problem that has blighted Paris.

如果一个城市的居民富有活力、有包容心、与时俱进、具有国际视野，这样的城市往往能够吸引一流人才。但大城市需要保持警惕，不要分化新来移民，把他们赶到边缘地带。这个问题一直困扰着巴黎。

Education

教育

Although Richard Florida plays down the link between education and start-ups, every successful city, from Bangalore to the San Francisco area, has a good university at its core or nearby.

尽管理查德·佛罗里达淡化了教育与初创企业之间的纽带，但从班加罗尔到旧金山地区，每一座成功的城市，在其核心或附近地区都有一所优秀的大学。

Intensity

密度

Urban innovation is not just about the numbers of tech companies; the trick is to get them communicating with each other. This means bars, coffee shops, shared offices and communal public spaces. Innovation often comes through serendipitous meetings, so tech clusters need places for unexpected encounters. Cool bars attract bright young people, and the proximity of the creative industries helps both groups to spot new opportunities and emerging trends.

城市创新并不仅仅取决于科技企业的数量，关键是让它们相互交流。这意味着要有酒吧、咖啡厅、共享办公室(shared office)和社区公共空间。创意常常出现在偶然的聚会中，因此科技产业集群需要有供偶遇发生的地方。酷酷的酒吧会吸引聪明的年轻人，而创造性产业毗邻，有助于发现新机遇和新兴趋势。