Omnipresence | VQR Online
Tiffany—“like Tiffany & Co.”—has lived here her whole life.
蒂芙尼——“就像蒂芙尼公司”——一生都住在这里。
Her hair is woven into a neat French twist.
她的头发编成整齐的法式盘发。
“Cops come and sit in here,” she says, waving her hand at the shadows on the small plaza around us.
“警察过来坐在这里，”她一边说，一边向我们周围小广场上的阴影挥挥手。
A white plastic bag rustles in a spring tree.
一个白色的塑料袋在春天的树上沙沙作响。
Tufts of white flowers cover the branches like a sweater, against the chill of early evening.
一簇簇白色的花朵像一件毛衣一样覆盖在树枝上，抵御傍晚的寒冷。
We raise our voices over the noise of a generator, one of a score of rumbling machines across the city that has flooded housing projects with chemical light, noise, and the guise of safety for five years.
我们在发电机的噪音中提高了声音，这是全市数十台隆隆作响的机器之一，五年来，这些机器让化学光、噪音和安全的幌子充斥着住房项目。
Tiffany needs to fix dinner; her kids are hungry.
蒂芙尼需要准备晚餐；她的孩子们饿了。
Her forty-first birthday is coming up.
她的四十岁生日快到了。
Tomorrow she’s going to a pole-dancing class with friends.
明天她要和朋友一起去钢管舞班。
“You look good,” I say.
“你看起来不错，”我说。
She tosses a hello to a passing neighbor who’s pushing an overflowing grocery cart.
她向路过的邻居打招呼，邻居推着一辆装得满满的杂货车。
Her gold hoop earrings sparkle.
她的金耳环闪闪发光。
Each building of Red Hook Houses is a community, often comprising several generations of families.
红钩屋的每栋建筑都是一个社区，通常由几代家庭组成。
The adults, Tiffany tells me, have known one another their whole lives.
蒂芙尼告诉我，这些成年人一生都认识。
Somebody’s always outside watching the kids as they play.
外面总是有人看着孩子们玩耍。
Past the trees, beyond the light’s reach, the playground equipment sits empty.
越过树林，在光线照射不到的地方，游乐场设施空着。
An urban garden of raised beds fills the dark.
城市花园里的高架床充满了黑暗。
It’s too early for any green to show through the dirt.
现在从泥土中显现出任何绿色还为时过早。
The area between the buildings, Tiffany’s front yard, is pretty and fresh.
建筑物之间的区域，即蒂芙尼的前院，美丽而清新。
“At first that light was right in my window,” Tiffany says.
“一开始，光线就在我的窗户里，”蒂芙尼说。
“Everybody complained.
“每个人都抱怨。
They turned some of the lights then,” but the glare and noise continue.
然后他们打开了一些灯，”但眩光和噪音仍在继续。
“I guess it’s safe, but they still harass the kids.” She means the cops.
“我想这是安全的，但他们仍然骚扰孩子们。”她指的是警察。
From dusk to dawn, the Red Hook Houses hum with construction lights, though there is no construction.
从黄昏到黎明，红钩屋都闪烁着建筑灯光，尽管还没有施工。
The generators rumble to a coughing start as the waterfront’s sunlight slides off the red brick of the four-, six- and fourteen-story buildings, retreating from Red Hook Channel and Buttermilk Channel, Erie Basin and Atlantic Basin.
当海滨的阳光从四层、六层和十四层建筑的红砖上滑落，从红钩海峡和酪乳海峡、伊利盆地和大西洋盆地退去时，发电机发出了令人咳嗽的隆隆声。
With a rumble, a gas-generated light pools between buildings, collecting like water, concentrating as the sun dies.
随着一声隆隆声，气体产生的光在建筑物之间聚集，像水一样聚集，随着太阳的消逝而集中。
Dozens of them, chained fast under the pretense of safety, slapping light across the sidewalks and plazas.
数十个人以安全为借口，用铁链牢牢拴住，在人行道和广场上照射灯光。
Under the pretense of service.
打着服务的幌子。
These are the largest housing projects in Brooklyn—6,500 people, mostly African Americans, Asians, and Latinos.
这些是布鲁克林最大的住房项目，可容纳 6,500 人，其中大部分是非裔美国人、亚洲人和拉丁美洲人。
The lights are the background, the ballast, for their footsteps, their shopping, their gossip and small talk with neighbors, their going out and coming home.
灯光是背景、镇流器，是他们的脚步、他们的购物、他们与邻居的八卦和闲聊、他们的外出和回家。
A rumble and brightness undergird life here.
隆隆声和光明支撑着这里的生活。
In 2012, Hurricane Sandy steeped the neighborhood in a cocktail of sewage, chemicals from the nearby Superfund site, the Gowanus Canal, and fuel oil from basements.
2012 年，桑迪飓风使该社区陷入污水、附近超级基金站点、戈瓦努斯运河的化学物质和地下室燃油的混合物中。
The rainbow-colored slick of oils and god-knows-what coated the benches, the cars, the trees.
长凳、汽车和树木上都覆盖着彩虹色的油污和天知道是什么东西。
Everything up to your waist was poison.
腰部以下的一切都是毒药。
The hurricane’s toxic tide killed half the trees in Coffey Park and corroded all the underground wiring for the Houses’ outdoor lights.
飓风的有毒潮汐杀死了科菲公园一半的树木，并腐蚀了房屋户外灯的所有地下线路。
Everybody lost something.
每个人都失去了一些东西。
That’s when the NYPD wheeled in the generator lights.
就在那时，纽约警察局打开了发电机灯。
Never let a disaster go to waste.
永远不要让一场灾难白白浪费。
They were necessary, the NYPD said, for safety.
纽约警察局表示，为了安全起见，它们是必要的。
They did not mention surveillance.
他们没有提到监视。
No one wants to live in darkness, but the lights aren’t really for the residents.
没有人愿意生活在黑暗中，但灯光并不真正适合居民。
They know this.
他们知道这一点。
Safety, surveillance: It’s hard to tell the difference.
安全、监控：很难区分。
Nathan is in no hurry.
内森并不着急。
He walks up to me and stops like we planned to meet here.
他走到我面前停下来，就像我们计划在这里见面一样。
He looks like he got dropped out of the 1970s.
他看起来就像是从 20 世纪 70 年代掉队了。
Square silver glasses, cream knit shirt, dress shoes.
银色方形眼镜，奶油色针织衫，正装鞋。
I know him from the neighborhood; he’s usually over by the deli on Columbia.
我在附近认识他；他通常在哥伦比亚的熟食店附近。
“Do you live here?” I ask.
“你住在这里吗？”我问。
“My whole life, except I was upstate for a while.” He means prison.
“我的一生，除了我在北部呆过一段时间。”他的意思是监狱。
Nineteen years.
十九年了。
A mother and three kids walk by.
一位母亲和三个孩子走过。
The adults nod.
大人们点头。
I ask him what he did time for.
我问他时间都用来做什么。
“They say I killed a man,” he says, drawing the words out real slow.
“他们说我杀了一个人，”他慢慢地说。
Did you?
你有吗？
“They say I did.”
“他们说我做到了。”
A label on the light behind him reads in big, red Barnum & Bailey letters: ABLE.
他身后的灯上有一个标签，上面写着巴纳姆和贝利 (Barnum & Bailey) 的红色大字：ABLE。
Able Equipment Rentals.
能够租赁设备。
With three offices: Long Island, New Jersey, Philadelphia.
设有三个办事处：长岛、新泽西州、费城。
It’s a sweet contract.
这是一份甜蜜的合同。
In March 2016, Mayor Bill de Blasio launched a study to look at the effect that lighting has on housing developments, “advancing the de Blasio administration’s commitment to promote safe and strong neighborhoods through comprehensive and innovative strategies that extend beyond traditional law enforcement.” This is how it works.
2016 年 3 月，市长白思豪 (Bill de Blasio) 启动了一项研究，旨在了解照明对住房开发的影响，“通过超越传统执法的全面和创新战略，推进白思豪政府致力于促进安全和强大社区的承诺。”这就是它的工作原理。
Get some folks from the projects to weigh in, call it a partnership for the Mayor’s Action Plan.
让项目中的一些人参与进来，将其称为市长行动计划的合作伙伴关系。
Use asset forfeiture to pay for the lights ($5.6 million).
使用资产没收来支付灯费（560 万美元）。
The lights don’t bother Nathan.
灯光并没有打扰内森。
“Cops gonna do what they do,” he says.
“警察会做他们该做的事，”他说。
“They’re always here,” meaning the lights, the cops.
“他们总是在这里”，指的是灯光、警察。
Do they keep crime down?
他们能减少犯罪吗？
Nathan shrugs like he has a chill.
内森耸耸肩，好像感冒了。
One eye is on me, another is wandering.
一只眼睛注视着我，另一只眼睛则四处游荡。
Then he slowly waves his hand, arcing across everything—the street, the light, the fall chill, “It’s like this.”
然后他缓缓挥动手，划过一切——街道、灯光、秋日的寒意，“是这样的。”
“I live right here,” Nathan says and points up two floors.
“我就住在这里，”内森说道，并指着两层楼。
“The light and sound come in my window.” He’s tall and lean, midthirties, with a strut.
“光和声音从我的窗户进来。”他又高又瘦，三十多岁，神气十足。
“Safe?
“安全吗？
I don’t know,” he shrugs, “but I can see.”
我不知道，”他耸耸肩，“但我看得出来。”
You can argue that black bodies should not be criminalized for being in public: Eric Garner (July 17, 2014), Michael Brown (August 9, 2014), Black Lives Matter.
你可以争辩说，黑人的身体不应因公开而被定罪：Eric Garner（2014 年 7 月 17 日）、Michael Brown（2014 年 8 月 9 日）、Black Lives Matter。
Tough-on-crime adherents will point out “police assassinations”: Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos (December 20, 2014), Blue Lives Matter.
严厉打击犯罪的追随者会指出“警察暗杀”：刘文建和拉斐尔·拉莫斯（2014 年 12 月 20 日），《蓝色生命也是命》。
Scott Downs at LawEnforcementToday.com writes that basically everybody is “fueling the fires of misinformation with unfounded, and subjective incendiary rhetoric placing the law enforcement community in harm’s way.” It’s the cops vs. everybody.
LawEnforcementToday.com 的斯科特·唐斯 (Scott Downs) 写道，基本上每个人都在“用毫无根据的、主观的煽动性言论助长错误信息，使执法界受到伤害”。这是警察与所有人的对抗。
It’s cops’ safety at any cost.
不惜一切代价维护警察的安全。
“Omnipresence is based on an implemented theory that police presence deters criminal behavior,” Downs writes.
“无所不在是基于一个已实施的理论，即警察的存在可以阻止犯罪行为，”唐斯写道。
Omnipresence.
无所不在。
That’s God, everywhere at once.
这就是上帝，同时无处不在。
The all-seeing eye.
全视之眼。
That’s what NYPD officers are when sitting in their satellite office on the back side of Red Hook West, Building 1, or in a car on the sidewalk at Ninth Street.
这就是纽约警察局官员坐在 1 号楼红钩西背面的卫星办公室或第九街人行道上的汽车里时的样子。
Or when two officers huddle under generator lights.
或者当两名警察挤在发电机灯下时。
Omnipresence is the generator lights, shining in windows, their aluminum bowls reflecting sulfur-bright into the bedroom of a brown family, bleaching the night of color.
无处不在的是发电机灯，在窗户里闪闪发光，它们的铝制碗将硫磺般的光芒反射到棕色家庭的卧室里，漂白了夜晚的色彩。
The lights began here in Red Hook with Sandy, Nathan says.
内森说，灯光是从雷德胡克的桑迪那里开始的。
But all over the city, there are lights.
但整个城市都灯火通明。
Even as the anti stop-and-frisk mayor, Bill de Blasio, campaigned against racial profiling with his Afroed son, the lights remained.
尽管反拦截搜查市长比尔·白思豪 (Bill de Blasio) 与他的黑人儿子发起反对种族定性的运动，但灯光依然存在。
Even as crime rates fall in the projects, in the city.
尽管项目中的犯罪率有所下降，但城市中的犯罪率却有所下降。
Even as de Blasio gives deep-pocketed townhouse developers their way with vacant lots in the projects, the lights are still here.
尽管白思豪为财力雄厚的联排别墅开发商提供了项目中的空地，但灯光仍然存在。
There’s projects Red Hook and there’s white Red Hook.
有红钩项目和白色红钩项目。
Projects Red Hook has the Associated grocery store, Kennedy Fried Chicken, the senior center, the 99-cent store, the deli with the bullet-proof spinning window, open 24/7.
Red Hook 项目拥有联合杂货店、肯尼迪炸鸡店、老年人中心、99 美分商店、带有防弹旋转窗的熟食店，24/7 营业。
White Red Hook has the Fairway, the Ikea, a few funky bars and a few popular restaurants, one named for the Revolutionary War–era fort that once stood nearby.
白红钩镇拥有 Fairway、宜家、几家时髦的酒吧和几家颇受欢迎的餐厅，其中一家以曾经位于附近的独立战争时期的堡垒命名。
But that parsing of amenities isn’t really accurate: class and race boundaries are porous on the street.
但这种对便利设施的解析并不准确：街道上的阶级和种族界限是漏洞百出的。
Between 2000 and 2014, the white population of Red Hook grew by 320 percent.
2000 年至 2014 年间，雷德胡克的白人人口增长了 320%。
The story of gentrification, the story of New York.
中产阶级化的故事，纽约的故事。
Housing prices too damn high, white people moving deeper into the boroughs.
房价太高了，白人向更深的行政区迁移。
A creeping radius of displacement.
位移的蠕变半径。
They bring restaurants and galleries, push out lower-income families, shredding communities.
他们带来了餐馆和画廊，驱逐了低收入家庭，撕裂了社区。
But the projects remain.
但项目仍然存在。
I don’t see any generator lights in white Red Hook.
我在白色红钩中没有看到任何发电机灯。
“Does inequality cause crime?” the Atlantic asked in 2014.
“不平等会导致犯罪吗？” 《大西洋月刊》在 2014 年问道。
Why the hell shouldn’t it?
为什么不应该呢？
I moved here in 2008.
我于2008年搬到这里。
My first day volunteering at the senior center, there was a murder investigation right outside the front door.
我在老年人中心做志愿者的第一天，前门外就发生了一起谋杀案调查。
A woman’s throat was slit as she sat on a bench.
一名妇女坐在长凳上，喉咙被割断。
A pregnant woman got shot in front of the Section 8 housing next to my apartment.
一名孕妇在我公寓旁边的第 8 区住房前被枪杀。
The baby died but she didn’t.
孩子死了，但她没有死。
The generator lights aren’t working.
发电机灯不工作。
“I’m assuming if they weren’t there, this area would be dark,” Whitney says of the humming lights, a black plastic bag in her hand.
“我想如果他们不在那里，这个区域就会一片漆黑，”惠特尼在谈到嗡嗡作响的灯光时说道，她手里拿着一个黑色塑料袋。
She smells of booze and tobacco; the weather is cold.
她身上有酒味和烟草味；天气很冷。
She just wants to get home.
她只想回家。
Walking away, she passes through the cone, as if spotlighted on a stage.
她走开，穿过圆锥体，就像舞台上的聚光灯一样。
She looks back, ducks her head as if to hide, exits stage left.
她回头看了一眼，低下头好像要躲起来，然后从舞台左侧退出。
“They gotta go,” a man says to me when I point to the lights.
当我指着灯光时，一个男人对我说：“他们得走了。”
He’s wearing a hat, loose jeans, white sneakers.
他戴着帽子，穿着宽松牛仔裤和白色运动鞋。
He can’t stop to talk.
他无法停下来说话。
“They make mad noise.” He raises his voice as he gets farther away.
“他们发出疯狂的噪音。”当他走得更远时，他提高了声音。
“Loud as hell.
“大声得要命。
Nice night, can’t open up your curtains.
美好的夜晚，无法打开窗帘。
Looks like we on martial law.”
看起来我们正在戒严。”
The Associated.
联合体。
Edward Lunch.
爱德华午餐。
Lil Larry’s Liquor/Wine.
里尔·拉里的酒/葡萄酒。
La Nueva Candy Store.
拉努埃瓦糖果店。
Boost Mobile Phone.
增强手机。
Cheng’s Chinese.
程的中国人。
Two cops roll by on Lorraine Street in a demoralizing, copped-up Smart car.
两名警察开着一辆士气低落的破旧斯玛特汽车在洛林街驶过。
It’s warm.
很温暖。
Nobody’s wearing a jacket.
没有人穿夹克。
“Give me your hand, monkey,” a mother says affectionately to her jangling four-year-old as they cross the street.
“把你的手给我，猴子，”当他们过马路时，一位母亲深情地对她那叮当作响的四岁孩子说。
“A lot of people complain about the noise,” Michael H.
“很多人抱怨噪音，”Michael H.
says as he rolls up to me in a motorized wheelchair.
他坐在电动轮椅上向我走来，说道。
He’s on to my question already.
他已经开始回答我的问题了。
His belly is pushes a tight stained shirt.
他的肚子顶着一件紧身的、脏兮兮的衬衫。
His white hair and beard are newly trimmed.
他的白发和胡须都是新修剪的。
“NYCHA is not what it used to be.” He was a groundsman for NYCHA, the city’s housing authority, pronounced nigh-cha, for fifteen years, through the late eighties and early nineties.
“NYCHA 已经不再是以前的样子了。”他在 NYCHA（纽约市住房管理局，发音为 nigh-cha）担任场地管理员长达 15 年，从八十年代末到九十年代初。
“Daly got killed right here,” he says, jamming his hand up and down.
“戴利就在这里被杀了，”他一边说，一边上下握着他的手。
A beloved local principal, shot dead while looking for a pupil.
一位受人爱戴的当地校长在寻找学生时被枪杀。
As reported by the New York Times : “streets ruled by violence,” “in the notorious Red Hook waterfront district,” “a crime-ridden housing project.” Red Hook’s 1991 crime tally: twenty-one murders, ten rapes, 526 robberies, and 364 assaults.
据《纽约时报》报道：“街道被暴力统治”，“在臭名昭著的雷德胡克海滨区”，“一个犯罪猖獗的住房项目”。雷德胡克 1991 年的犯罪统计：21 起谋杀案、10 起强奸案、526 起抢劫案和 364 起袭击案。
Michael H.
迈克尔·H.
points to a tree he planted twenty-five years ago, its shadow cast by the light of the generator.
指着他二十五年前种下的一棵树，发电机的光投射出它的影子。
“I’m okay with the whites,” he says.
“我对白人没问题，”他说。
“They make the neighborhood better.”
“他们让社区变得更好。”
But everybody at the senior center complains when fourteen Citibike stations show up on the streets one morning—rental bikes marketing an international bank.
但一天早上，当街上出现了 14 个 Citibike 自行车站——推销一家国际银行的自行车租赁站时，老年人中心的每个人都抱怨不已。
Gentrification takes up too much parking.
绅士化占用了太多停车位。
Reporting for this project was funded by the Economic Hardship Reporting Project .
该项目的报告由经济困难报告项目资助。
These dispatches are from #VQRTrueStory , our social-media experiment in nonfiction, which you can follow by visiting us on Instagram: @vqreview .
这些快讯来自#VQRTrueStory，我们的非小说类社交媒体实验，您可以通过在 Instagram 上访问我们来关注：@vqreview。
Ann Neumann is author of The Good Death (Beacon, 2016) and has written for Harper’s , the New York Times , the Baffler , and other publications.
安·诺伊曼 (Ann Neumann) 是《善终》（《Beacon》，2016 年）一书的作者，并为《哈泼斯》、《纽约时报》、《Baffler》和其他出版物撰稿。
Elizabeth Felicella’s work appears in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Vogue, and elsewhere .
伊丽莎白·费利切拉 (Elizabeth Felicella) 的作品出现在《纽约客》、《纽约时报》、《Vogue》和其他刊物上。
i am most sympathetic to the neighbors who must put up with the noise these lights generate and glare entering their apartments.
我非常同情那些必须忍受这些灯产生的噪音和进入他们公寓的眩光的邻居。
It makes sense to provide some outdoor lighting to enable people to find their way and discouage mugging, but the community deserves intelligent design from lighting experts who appreciate the psychological affects on people.
提供一些户外照明以使人们能够找到方向并阻止抢劫是有意义的，但社区值得照明专家进行智能设计，他们了解对人们的心理影响。