欧洲打响反夜生活战

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.

如果今年夏天你造访意大利时尚之都米兰，那么切记不要因为午夜后在街上进食冰淇淋而被警察逮到。如今在米兰，这样的行为是违法的。

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.

上个月月初，米兰市政府颁布了一项新的法律——严禁一些夜生活集聚地的酒吧和餐厅在午夜后向人们出售酒水和外卖食品。这么做的目的是什么呢？米兰市议会发表声明称，该举措是为了遏制“商铺外人行道上的夜间集会”。

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.

这项法律遭到了许多人的抗议。这不禁让人想起纽约的“大包装碳酸饮料禁令”，同时这一举措也是政府设法干预居民生活的又一案例。但如果你考虑到这个国家低迷的经济以及居高不下的失业率，那么对于当地政府对“夜间集会”的恐惧就不难理解了。

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.

据美国《大西洋月刊》报道，事实上，近来欧洲各城市纷纷出台了各种古怪的夜生活禁令，而米兰的这条法律不过是其中最令人咂舌的一条罢了。去年9月，马德里市政府宣布将市中心划为“低噪音区”。从那以后，该市政府一直拒绝向酒吧和夜总会颁发营业许可证。

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.

巴黎警方严管夜生活，此举使得法国全国性报纸《法国世界报》在2009年将巴黎戏称为“欧洲无聊之都”。该报援引的巴黎市政府的一项研究显示，要想在巴黎取得夜总会营业许可证，要比在伦敦、柏林、阿姆斯特丹以及巴塞罗那难得多。

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.

但在一些被称为“夜生活之都”的城市，情况也不是那么乐观。在德国，全国音乐作品演出权与复制权管理协会GEMA正试图要求酒吧和夜总会为播放的所有音乐缴纳使用费。一旦该要求被通过，将致使一些小规模夜店不得不关门大吉。

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.

为何欧洲各大城市对于夜生活管理如此严苛？美国《大西洋月刊》报道称，这或许是因为欧洲人口日益老龄化，因此愈发不能容忍街区附近的夜生活。失业率居高不下意味着许多年轻人无所事事，从不早起，很多人都当上了“夜猫子”。

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.

对此，刊登在《大西洋月刊》上的一篇文章解释道，过去，酒吧和夜总会在欧洲各大城市的市中心遍地开花，而那里也正是上班族的居住地。但渐渐地，上班族开始相继搬出市中心，迁往市郊。现在，只有那些备受政府关注的有钱人和社会精英才能住得起市中心。但是这些人不会到酒吧和夜总会去参加社交活动。相反，他们将这些在自己的地盘“寻欢作乐者”视为一个大麻烦。同时，他们也担心酒吧和夜总会将会使他们的街区“掉价”，从而导致他们的房产资本缩水。