读者文摘:底特律的骄傲:约翰·乔治(1)（在线收听）

As John George remembers it, the Detroit neighborhood he grew up in was straight out of Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life".

正如约翰·乔治所记得的，他在底特律长大的那个社区就好像出自弗兰克·卡普拉的电影《生活多美好》。

"We knew all our neighbors," George, 60, told Detroit's Metro Times.

60岁的乔治告诉底特律的《地铁时报》，“我们认识所有的邻居。”

"On Christmas Eve, we'd all go to midnight Mass, and there'd be 300 people in our house at one o'clock to about five in the morning.

“在圣诞前夜，我们都会去参加子夜弥撒，在凌晨1点到5点，我们家会有300人。

The folks were just really good, hardworking people."

这些人真的很好，工作很努力。”

By the'80s, however, the old neighborhood was more Pottersville than Bedford Falls.

然而，到了80年代，老社区比贝德福德瀑布镇更像波特斯维尔。

Due in part to economic downturns and a nationwide drug epidemic, well-kept homes had been abandoned and kindly neighbors had fled to the suburbs.

在一定程度上，由于经济衰退和全国性的毒品泛滥，维护良好的房屋被遗弃，好心的邻居们逃到了郊区。

But not George. "Living in any city, it's like being in a relationship," he told Reader's Digest.

但乔治没有这样做。他在接受《读者文摘》采访时表示：“住在任何城市，都像是在谈恋爱。”

"Some days are better than others. But it was my home.

“有些时光要比其他的时光要好。但是这是我的家乡。

And when I saw it deteriorating, I had two choices: I could leave, or I could stay and fight. I decided to stay and fight."

当我看到它不断变差的时候，我有两个选择：我可以离开，或者可以留下来战斗。我决定留下来战斗。”

When the abandoned home behind his turned into a crack den, the father of two grabbed some plywood and nails and began boarding up the house.

当他身后那座被遗弃的房子变成一个破屋子时，两个孩子的父亲抓起一些胶合板和钉子，开始用木板搭房子。

After two neighbors stopped to ask what he was doing, they decided to help, with great results.

两个邻居停下来问他在做什么，他们决定帮忙，结果很好。

"When the drug dealers came back, they turned around and went home," says George. "That's how it all got started."

“当毒贩回来后，他们转身回家，”乔治说。“事情就是这样开始的。”

"It is Detroit Blight Busters, or DBB, an organization of civic-minded volunteers dedicated to reviving the city they love,

这是底特律疫病克星组织（DBB），一个由热心公益的志愿者组成的组织，致力于振兴他们热爱的城市，

one abandoned house, one vacant lot, and one garbage-strewn park at a time.

一个废弃的房子，一片空地，一个垃圾遍地的公园。

In the 30 years since that first home rescue, an army of approximately 182,000 volunteers,

在第一次家园救援之后的30年里，一支由大约182,000名志愿者组成的军队，

along with corporate and private donors, has helped George demolish around 300 derelict homes, mostly in the poorer Northwest area of Detroit.

和企业和个人捐赠者一起，帮助乔治拆除了大约300座被遗弃的房屋，大部分位于底特律较贫穷的西北部地区。

They've also secured 400-some homes by boarding them up, thus keeping bad actors out.

他们还将400多所房屋用木板固定起来，从而将坏人挡在门外。

They've painted and renovated nearly 900 homes and built over 100 from scratch.

他们粉刷和翻新了近900座房屋，并从零开始建造了100多座房屋。

According to Forbes, more than 1,000 Detroiters have been housed as a result of DBB's work.

根据福布斯的数据，超过1000名底特律人因为DBB的工作而被安置。