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Stockholm’s Housing Shortage Threatens to Stifle Fast-Growing Start-Ups Tyler Faux thought finding a place to live in New York City was tough. 泰勒·福克斯(Tyler Faux)原本觉得，在纽约市找个住处是很艰难的。 But when Mr. Faux, a 24-year-old New York native, moved here recently to work for one of the city’s fast-growing start-ups, he was in for a rude awakening. 但是，当这位24岁的纽约本地人最近搬到斯德哥尔摩，为当地增长最快的一家创业公司工作时，他才幡然醒悟。 Faced with Sweden’s labyrinthine rules on renting apartments and a decades-long waiting list for government housing, Mr. Faux, a Harvard computer science graduate, repeatedly came up empty when hunting for housing — no matter how much he was willing to spend. 瑞典的租房规则错综复杂，而要申请政府保障住房，得等上几十年才轮得到自己。面对此种情况，无论这位毕业于哈佛大学计算机科学专业的高材生愿出多大价钱，却总是在找房的过程中扑空。 “In New York, there are ways to find a good apartment if you’re willing to pay,” said Mr. Faux, who eventually signed a short-term lease for a one-bedroom apartment in the center of Stockholm for $1,700 a month, much less than what most New Yorkers pay for a similar apartment. “But in Sweden, that doesn’t exist. It’s difficult to find a place here.” “在纽约，你只要愿意花钱，总能找到好房子，”福克斯说，他最终签了一个短期租约，在斯德哥尔摩的市中心找了一套一居室公寓，房租是每月1700美元（约合人民币10531元），比多数纽约人为同类房型所支付的租金少得多，“但是在瑞典，就没什么房源。在这里很难找到房子。” Mr. Faux’s housing troubles are becoming a common refrain in Stockholm and other technology hubs around the world. The Swedish capital has emerged as one of Europe’s most attractive tech centers in recent years, luring thousands of workers and developers to companies like Spotify, the popular music-streaming service that was started here. 福克斯遭遇的住房困境，正成为斯德哥尔摩、乃至世界各地的科技中心都在面对的一项普遍难题。瑞典首都近年来已成为欧洲最具吸引力的科技中心之一，它将成千上万的工薪族和开发人员，吸引到了像Spotify这类公司里。Spotify是一家创立于斯德哥尔摩的、广受欢迎的流媒体音乐服务公司。 But the city also has become a cautionary tale about the troubles that arise when a booming tech sector runs head-on into city planning rules that have not changed for decades. 然而与此同时，斯德哥尔摩的城市规划法则近几十年来都未曾发生过改变，如今已经赶不上科技行业大踏步前进的步伐看，由此造成的问题，也给我们带来了警示。 Swedish rent controls and other housing restrictions in place since the 1960s make it almost impossible for people to lease out apartments to foreign tech workers. And a backlog of new construction means that only 10,000 new homes are expected to be built annually over the next 15 years, though Stockholm’s local government has fast-tracked some new residential developments. 瑞典自20世纪60年代以来实施的租金管制等住房限制措施，使业主几乎不可能将公寓出租给外国科技人才。新施工项目的积压，意味着在未来15年内，每年只能建造1万套住宅。只不过，斯德哥尔摩地方政府已经给一些新的住宅开发项目设立了快速通道。 In contrast, roughly 40,000 people — both from inside Sweden and outside the country — are now moving to the city to work for tech companies, financial firms and other Swedish businesses each year, according to Stockholm’s city government. 与此形成反差的是，据斯德哥尔摩市政府称，每年约有4万名来自国内外的人士搬到斯德哥尔摩，就职于科技公司、金融公司和其他瑞典企业。 “The system is completely broken,” said Billy McCormac, an American who moved to Sweden in the 1990s and now campaigns for housing reform as head of the Stockholm branch of the Swedish Property Federation, an industry group. “We can’t build a tech cluster here if people don’t have anywhere to live.” “这个系统完全崩溃了，”比利·麦考密克(Billy McCormac)说。这名美国人在上世纪90年代来到瑞典，现为瑞典房地产协会(Swedish Property Federation)这个行业团体在斯德哥尔摩分会的负责人，致力于倡导住房改革，“如果这里没有地方供人居住，那我们如何能建立一个科技中心呢？” The lack of housing was a regular hot topic of discussion at one of Stockholm’s co-working spaces — where early-stage tech companies swap ideas over games of Ping-Pong. On the fifth floor of a modern building in the main shopping district here, engineers at the space, called SUP46, grumbled that they could not find places to live. 在斯德哥尔摩的一处共用工作空间里，缺少住房总是人们热议的一个话题。这里聚集着一些处于初期发展阶段的科技公司，其员工们会在打乒乓球的时候交流想法。这处共用工作空间设在当地一片主要购物区中的一栋现代建筑的五楼，名为SUP46。在其中工作的工程师们抱怨他们找不到地方住。 “Renting something is almost impossible,” said Fritjof Andersson, 33, over a cup of coffee at the shared office. Mr. Andersson started his first tech company more than a decade ago, but now cannot afford to bring international developers to the Swedish capital to expand his small team. “租个地方住几乎是不可能的，”在那间共享办公室里，33岁的弗里肖夫·安德森(Fritjof Anderson)喝着咖啡说。十多年前，安德森创立了他的第一家科技公司，但现在却没有财力把外国开发人员带到瑞典首都来，以扩充自己的小团队。 “We don’t have the financial muscle to help them find an apartment,” he said, adding that he was recently forced to limit a search for new coders to people already living in Stockholm. “If the city wants to attract start-ups, someone needs to fix the housing problem.” “我们没有足够的财力帮他们找公寓，”安德森说，他还补充说，自己最近不得不从已在斯德哥尔摩解决了住房问题的人员当中，招募新的程序员。“要是这座城市想要吸引创业企业，那就必须有人来解决住房问题。” Many people in Stockholm welcome the new workers. But critics say the newly arrived, who often have salaries that dwarf local residents, should not be given priority over people who have lived in neighborhoods for decades. 斯德哥尔摩有很多人是欢迎新人才的到来的。但有批评人士提出，新来者的工资往往比当地居民要高，不应该把优先权给他们、而亏待了在本地社区居住了几十年的人。 “Rents going up will only force people to move out of their homes,” said Marie Linder, chairwoman of the Swedish Union of Tenants, which represents the rights of existing renters, many of whom live in low-cost government housing. “People will have to leave their apartments, but where will they go?” “租金上涨，只会逼迫人们搬离自己的家，”瑞典租户联盟(Swedish Union of Tenants)的主席玛丽·林德(Marie Linder)说。瑞典租户联盟代表着现有出租房主的权益，其中许多人正居住在政府提供的低廉保障房内，“人们将不得不离开他们的公寓，但是他们有何处可去呢？” The complaints are echoed in other cities with a heavy concentration of tech companies. In San Francisco, local residents have complained bitterly that 20-something engineers and developers have transformed entire neighborhoods, where upmarket wine bars and expensive yoga studios have replaced down-on-their-luck bookstores and family-run coffee shops. 在其他科技企业高度密集的城市里，也有人抱怨这个问题。在旧金山，当地居民纷纷诉苦，说那些20多岁的工程师和开发人员，已经完全改变了整个社区的面貌。以前在这里营业的是惨淡经营的书店和家庭式的咖啡馆，而现在，它们都被高档酒吧和收费高昂的瑜伽馆取代了。 Yet as the average salary rises in many cities, local planners say the often-rapid gentrification can benefit the majority of a city’s population. 但是，随着许多城市平均工资的上涨，当地的规划者称，这样的士绅化趋势往往来势迅猛，可以造福城市当中的多数居民。 In London, one of Europe’s largest technology centers, local tech companies are expected to create almost 50,000 jobs and add $19 billion to the local economy over the next decade, according to Oxford Economics, which provides economic forecasting. 伦敦是欧洲最大的科技中心之一。据一家提供经济预测服务的公司Oxford Economics透露，未来十年内，当地高科技公司有望创造近5万个工作岗位，为当地经济贡献大约190亿美元价值。 Some of that money, though, is returned to the tech industry in the form of tax breaks for people starting businesses and government grants for local start-ups. That has led some urban policy researchers to argue that a level of inequality is inevitable if policy makers focus their attention on attracting people from a single industry over other priorities. 只不过，其中一部分财富被返还给了科技行业。其形式包括创业者享有的税收减免，以及政府给当地创业企业发放的补贴。因此，一些城市政策研究人员认为，如果政策制定者仅仅优先考虑吸引某个单一行业的人才，而忽视了其他行业，那就必然会导致某种程度的不平等。 “In cities, competition for space and resources is fierce,” said Richard Florida, a professor at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, who tracks how cities like New York, Berlin and London have handled the tension between new industries and existing residents. “If you want to offer the right incentives to attract tech companies, you’re not going to maintain an equitable society.” “在城市里，人们对空间和资源的争夺是激烈的，”多伦多大学(University of Toronto)罗特曼管理学院(Rotman School of Management)的教授理查德·佛罗里达(Richard Florida)说，他曾跟踪研究纽约、柏林、伦敦等城市处理新兴产业与现有居民间矛盾的方式，“如果你想拿出正确的激励机制来吸引科技企业，那你就无法维持一个公平的社会。” Local residents have felt the pinch in many cities with a growing tech industry. 在许多科技行业迅猛发展的城市，当地居民都感觉到了压力。 In Shoreditch — a once run-down working-class community in East London — house prices now regularly top more than $1 million, roughly a 50 percent increase over the last decade. And as Berlin continues to be hit with a steady tide of tech workers, the country’s government has said it will now set price caps on rental apartments to protect existing tenants. 在伦敦东部一个曾经破败不堪的工薪阶层社区肖尔迪奇(Shoreditch) ，房价现在往往要超过100万美元（约合人民币619万元）。在过去十年里，房价大约增长了50%。而柏林依然是个热门城市，有持续稳定的科技从业者涌入。该国政府已表示，将要设置出租公寓的价格上限，以保护现有租户。 “In Berlin, there’s a tremendous amount of grumbling about foreigners moving in,” said Alex Farcet, a co-founder of Startupbootcamp, which offers short-term mentorship programs for tech entrepreneurs in places like Berlin, Amsterdam and London. “It can be super-difficult for people to find housing.” “在柏林，人们对于外国人涌入的怨言很大，”Startupbootcamp的联合创始人亚历克斯·法尔萨(Alex Farcet)说，“它会使寻觅房源变得超级困难。”Startupbootcamp是一家为诸如柏林、阿姆斯特丹、伦敦这些城市的科技创业者提供短期指导服务的机构。 The tension between the so-called global technorati and cities’ residents is a relatively new phenomenon. Tech giants like Apple, Microsoft and Nokia have long operated primarily in business parks located in the suburbs, or on the outskirts of a city. 科技企业和城市居民之间关系紧张，还是一个相对较新的现象。长久以来，苹果、微软、诺基亚等科技巨头，一直将主要经营场所设在郊区的商业园区，或者城市的边缘。 But in recent years, a new generation of start-ups, like Twitter and King Digital Entertainment, the Anglo-Swedish game company behind the Candy Crush franchise, have elected to set up shop in the heart of a metropolis, catering to workers who crave easy access to a city’s fashionable bars, public transportation and quirky apartments, as much as stock options and six-figure salaries. 但是近年来，像Twitter和在英国/瑞典两地经营的King数码娱乐（King Digital Entertainment，《糖果粉碎传奇》[Candy Crush]的开发商）这样新一代的创业企业，为了迎合员工诉求，已将经营场所选在了大都市的中心地带。这些公司的员工渴望能够轻松享受一座城市的时尚酒吧、公共交通和设计古怪的公寓，对他们来说，这些东西跟股票期权和六位数的工资一样重要。 |
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