In 2013, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby warned of a future in which global banks dominated an ever wealthier City of London with ever-spiralling property prices, served by a “disenfranchised population” commuting in daily from elsewhere. Then came the pandemic. Today, the City is a near-ghost town, its bankers and lawyers working from home offices and attics. To entice them back eventually — at least some of the time — the Square Mile has conjured a vision of a vibrant, diverse future where software designers and artists stroll beside derivatives traders on traffic-free streets. Achieving anything like it will require many stakeholders to work together. But it will strengthen the City’s defences, too, against its other big challenge: Brexit.
2013年，坎特伯雷大主教賈斯廷?韋爾比(Justin Welby)警告稱，未來，全球銀行將支配一個比以往任何時候都富有、房價不斷躥升的倫敦金融城(City of London)，而在此工作的是每天從其他地方通勤而來的“被剝奪權(quán)利的人”。后來，新型冠狀病毒肺炎（COVID-19，即2019冠狀病毒病）疫情爆發(fā)了。如今，倫敦金融城幾乎成了鬼城，這里的銀行家和律師都在家或閣樓中辦公。為了吸引他們最終回到這里——至少待一段時間——“平方英里”（Square Mile，倫敦金融城的別稱——譯者注）變戲法似的拿出一套有活力、多元化的未來愿景：軟件設(shè)計師、藝術(shù)家與衍生品交易員在步行街擦肩而過。達到這樣的目標需要許多利益相關(guān)方共同努力。但這也將增強倫敦金融城對其最大挑戰(zhàn)——英國退歐(Brexit)——的防御能力。