倫敦本土精英與外來鉅富爭奪高檔社區

LONDON — The seasonal lights are strung along the main street. Vendors offer scarlet poinsettia and white-berried mistletoe and trees to be decked for a cozy English Christmas — hardly the front-line emblems of a war against the encroachment of the superrich.

倫敦——節日的彩燈沿着主幹道垂掛着。商販在出售一品紅、白果槲寄生和聖誕樹，正好用來裝扮出一個妥帖的英式聖誕節。這裏看起來，一點也不像是阻擊超級鉅富侵佔領地的戰爭前線。

Yet in Highgate, an upscale neighborhood five miles north of London’s heart, the familiar year-end trappings mark what researchers call an alpha territory fought over by two elites: Those who have for decades cherished it as a center of cultured, comfortable, largely professional affluence; and outsiders of newer and much greater wealth who see it as little more than a location for trophy mansions.

然而，在倫敦市中心以北五英里的高檔社區海格特，這些常見的年終裝飾卻突顯出研究人員口中的一種現象：兩個精英階層在上演一場有關領地的龍爭虎鬥。一方在此定居了數十年，珍視這裏，認爲當地聚集着品位高雅、爲人得當、大多爲專業人士的富足人羣；另一方則是外來的新富，身家也高出前者一大截，認爲這裏不過是其炫富豪宅的地方。

The conflict is depicted as the consequence of a widening global divide between the überrich and the rest, reminiscent of the upstairs-downstairs gulf in Western society before World War I.

這場衝突被描述成了全球範圍內超級富豪與其他人羣之間鴻溝不斷拉大的象徵，令人回想起第一次世界大戰之前西方社會的樓上-樓下之爭。

Writ small, social researchers say, the tussle could foretell a future in which an ever-smaller upper crust will command financial heights far beyond the dreams of lesser mortals, even those who qualify, like many of the folks in Highgate, as pretty well off themselves.

社會科學領域的研究者表示，海格特的衝突雖然微小，但或許預示了未來：一羣人數越來越少的最上層將掌控財富的制高點，把凡夫俗子遠遠甩在身後，就連那些本身算得上富足的人，比如海格特的許多居民，也做夢都難以望其項背。

These days, equality campaigners say, 80 immensely rich people have amassed the same wealth as the poorer half of the world’s entire population.

倡導縮小貧富差距的人士稱，事到如今，世界上最富裕的80人累積的財富，與全球人口中較爲貧窮的那一半相當。

London, according to a report focusing on Highgate by researchers at two universities, is the location of choice for the global superrich, whose desire for homes in prestigious places is “displacing pre-existing elites” and reshaping the character of their adoptive neighborhoods.

兩所大學的研究人員聯合對海格特社區所做的一份報告顯示，倫敦是全球鉅富最青睞的地方，而他們在高端地段置業的慾望正“讓當地原本存在的精英階層流離失所”，並在重塑他們新家鄉的特色。

Indeed, the adversaries of ultrahigh-end redevelopment say they start new campaigns every month to resist the construction of immense mansions, often with multistory basements for cars, home cinemas, spas and panic rooms.

果不其然，反對超高端再開發項目的人士稱，他們每個月都要發起新的運動來抵制超級豪宅建設工程。這些豪宅往往會挖掘多層地下室，用作車庫、家庭影院、休閒健身房和安全屋。

There are those who shrug and say it was ever thus. Highgate and the neighboring Hampstead have long existed as an enclave of grand homes often created or remodeled by magnates who built their fortunes on coal or soap or beer, and were not shy about expressing their wealth in bricks and mortar.

有人對此一笑而過，說事情從來便是如此。長久以來，海格特與相鄰的漢普斯特德都是豪宅遍地。這些房屋由藉着煤礦、肥皂或啤酒之類的東西發家的大亨新建或改建，毫不掩飾房主的財富。

But it is those same houses, and the plots around them, that now attract more secretive outsiders from Russia and elsewhere. Many are said to hide their identity with high fences, security gates and thickets of front companies registered in tax havens.

然而，正是這些宅邸及周邊的地塊，如今吸引了來自俄羅斯等地的更爲神祕的外來者。據說，其中許多人在掩蓋自己的身份，利用的是高高的圍欄、牢固的大門與註冊在避稅天堂的一層層的殼公司。

Among the most talked about is a 25-bedroom house called Witanhurst, said to be the second-biggest residential property in London, after Buckingham Palace, a vast pile with vistas over the 800-acre Hampstead Heath.

最引得衆人議論的一座豪宅是有25間臥室的威坦赫斯特(Witanhurst)。它號稱是倫敦第二大的宅邸，僅次於白金漢宮，氣勢宏偉，坐擁漢普斯特德800英畝的美景。

According to news reports, the buyer paid some $75 million for it and resolved to spend the same again on enhancements, including basement excavations for features including a 70-foot swimming pool and a garage for 25 cars. Once the renovations are complete, the house will command a resale value of $450 million.

新聞報道稱，買家支付了7500萬美元將其收入囊中，並且決心再花上這個數目來進行改建，包括開掘地下室，用來建設70英尺長的游泳池、容納25輛汽車的車庫等設施。一旦完成翻新，這座房子的轉賣價值將達4.5億美元。

As the huge remodeling progressed, mystery over the ownership deepened. Some even gossiped that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was building himself a high-end hide-out. Then The New Yorker identified Andrey Guryev, a fertilizer magnate from Russia, as the beneficiary of a company called Safran Holdings, said to own Witanhurst on behalf of his family.

隨着這項巨大的改建工程的推進，圍繞着房主身份的謎團也加深了。一些傳言甚至表示，是俄羅斯總統弗拉基米爾·V·普京(Vladimir V. Putin of Russia)在給自己打造高端藏身之所。後來，《紐約時報》揭露，俄羅斯化肥大王安德烈·古裏耶夫(Andrey Guryev)是一家名爲“藏紅花控股”(Safran Holdings)的公司的受益人，而這家公司據稱代表其家族持有威坦赫斯特。

Since its days as a travelers’ halt on London’s northern approaches, Highgate has hosted prominent, sometimes mysterious, outsiders.

自從當年開始充當南下倫敦的旅客的歇腳點，海格特就在招待外來的貴客，其中不乏神祕之人。

The Russian Trade Mission, for instance, is rumored to be a nest of spies. The poshest thoroughfare has been home to the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the supermodel Kate Moss and many others. Its 19th-century cemetery is the final resting place of, among others, Karl Marx and Alexander V. Litvinenko, who was poisoned with radioactive polonium.

比如，俄羅斯貿易代表團駐地傳說中是間諜的窩點。這裏最高端的街道名流薈萃，既住過詩人塞繆爾·泰勒·柯勒律治(Samuel Taylor Coleridge)，又住過超模凱特·莫斯(Kate Moss)。海格特建於19世紀的墓地，安葬着卡爾·馬克思(Karl Marx)和亞歷山大·V·利特維年科(Alexander V. Litvinenko)等名人。後者生前是特工，遭放射性物質釙毒殺。

But there is a particular unease about the newest arrivals. “We don’t want limos with smoked windows and men in dark glasses with bulging breast pockets, and the place surrounded by CCTV,” a local councilor, Michael Hammerson, told The Daily Mail. “That’s not Highgate.”

不過，對於最新的這批來客，當地人有一種特別的不安。“我們不想要深色玻璃的豪車，前胸口袋鼓囊囊的戴着墨鏡的男人，到處裝滿閉路電視監控系統，”當地議員邁克爾·哈默森(Michael Hammerson)告訴《每日郵報》(The Daily Mail)。“海格特不是這樣的。”

That definition, though, is precisely what the skirmish is all about.

然而，海格特到底該是怎樣的，正是這場衝突的核心所在。