震惊世界的洛杉矶暴力事件已经平息,该市的大规模重建工作正在着手进行。然而不少美国人担心,城市暴力的根源并未消除,悲剧仍有可能重演。这种忧虑不无道理。因为洛杉矶事件并不仅仅是种族矛盾激化的结果,而是更多地反映出在美国经济和社会生活中被长期忽视的一个顽症——城市贫困化。城市贫困化是指西方国家的一些大城市里出现的部分居民收入下降、失业率上升、社会福利资金不足及设施老化、青少年犯罪和吸毒人数增加等各种与经济萧条紧密相关的社会现象。比起其他西方国家来, The violence in Los Angeles, which shocked the world, has subsided and the city’s massive reconstruction is under way. However, many Americans worry that the root causes of urban violence have not been eliminated and that the tragedy is still likely to repeat itself. This worry is not unreasonable. Because the Los Angeles incident is not merely the result of the intensification of racial conflicts, but more a reflection of the chronic problem of urban poverty that has long been overlooked in the economic and social life of the United States. Urban poverty refers to various social phenomena closely related to economic depression such as the decline of some residents’ incomes, the rise of unemployment, the shortage of social welfare funds, the aging of facilities, the increase of juvenile delinquency and the number of drug abusers in some big cities in western countries. Compared to other Western countries,