When the District of Columbia swore in its newly-elected mayor and council in January, about 300 ordinary Washingtonians also took an oath as representatives of local citizens’ groups called Advisory Neighborhood Commissions - or ANCs. Each ANC is made up of ordinary citizens, elected by residents of their immediate neighborhoods to represent the interests of those neighbors to the Washington City Council.
今年1月，当首都华盛顿特区新当选的市长和市政委员会宣誓就职时，大约300名普通的华盛顿特区公民也宣誓就任一个叫作“小区咨询委员会”的地方公民组织的代表。在华盛顿，每个小区咨询委员会的成员都是普通公民，由他们所在社区的居民推选，在华盛顿市政委员会中为当地居民争取权益。
Washington residents Aaron Spencer and Ahnna Smith enter a neighborhood bar to meet with managers about an application to expand their business upstairs.
华盛顿居民阿龙·斯潘塞和阿恩娜·史密斯走进一个社区酒吧，但他们不是为了买酒喝。他们要和酒吧经理们开会，讨论酒吧经营者提出的把经营范围扩大到楼上的申请。
Spencer and Smith are ANC commissioners. They both have typical day jobs but volunteer as commissioners to represent the interests of their neighbors to the Washington D.C. City Council.
斯潘塞和史密斯是当地小区咨询委员会的代表。他们除了自己的一份全职工作外，还自愿为小区咨询委员会工作，代表他们所居住的小区在市政委员会中为居民们争取权益。
ANC commissioners help oversee the small but important aspects of local government, The ones that define the character of a neighborhood - things like liquor licenses, zoning applications and on-street parking.
小区咨询委员会帮助监督市政府运作中一些小的但是非常重要的方面，那些事情足以定义一个小区的特性，比如卖酒执照、区域划分申请、以及街边停车规定等等。
Spencer and Smith were sworn into their local ANC last January in a large ceremony that included the swearing in of Washington’s new mayor and city council members.
斯潘塞、史密斯以及劳伦·麦凯锡今年1月参加了一个大型仪式，宣誓就职成为小区咨询委员会委员。华盛顿市新市长和市委会成员也在同一个仪式上宣誓上任。
Many city politicians began their careers as ANC commissioners but Spencer he says being a commissioner is a chance to give back to his community.
斯潘塞知道，很多华盛顿市的政治人物就是从小区咨询委员会开始自己的政治生涯的。但是斯潘塞加入委员会，只是为了回馈社区。
"I look at it more as a give-back," he says. "I don’t see it as a political start. I see it as a civic duty frankly."
他说：“我更多地把这看成是一个回报的机会，而不是一个政治生涯的开始。说实话，我认为这是一种公民职责。”
Smith agrees. "Because it’s such a hyper-local position. You are really much more to the ground and connected to the people you are representing."
史密斯则表示：“这实在只是一个小芝麻官，所以你更加接近最基层，更加紧密联系你所代表的人们。”
Lauren McKenzie was sworn in along with Spencer and Smith. "Nobody from my neighborhood was running. So that's actually why I picked up the ballot and started campaigning."
另外一个年轻的委员会成员麦凯锡说：“我所在的那个社区没有人参选。因此我就站出来，开始竞选。”
Lorenzo Morris specializes in urban politics at Howard University in Washington. He says ANCs are especially important in areas of local government where ordinary citizens often have a difficult time expressing themselves.
霍华德大学的城市政治学专家洛伦佐·莫里斯指出，小区咨询委员会在让普通老百姓有机会表达自己的想法方面起到至关重要的作用。
"ANCs are sort of hybrid vehicles to link the ordinary citizen in the local community with the government in such a way as to give them a special access," says Morris. "So they make no formal governing decisions but they have a special voice and a special audience with those on the council and in city governments who make decisions."
他说：“小区咨询委员会有点象一个混合载体，把当地社区中的普通老百姓和政府联系起来，让老百姓有一个特别的通道可以反映他们的问题。这个委员会不做任何正式的行政决定，但是他们在做决策的市委会和市政府中享有特别的声音、特别的听众。”
According to Morris, nothing quite like an ANC exists in any other major American city. That’s because Washington was founded as a special district to act as the seat of the federal government - and was never part of any U.S. State. The city is directly overseen by Congress and did not get its own city council or mayor until 1974.
"In other words, at every point citizens of D.C. have a reason to believe they form a community that’s deprived of some degree of democratic representation," says Morris.
So when ANCs were established in the 1970s, they helped ensure that the population of Washington - which has no voting representation at the federal level - gets a strong political voice on a neighborhood level.
华盛顿市的小区咨询委员会成立于上世纪70年代。华盛顿居民在国会没有享有投票权的代表，而小区咨询委员会至少能够确保华盛顿的居民在小区这个层次上拥有强大的政治声音。
McKenzie is getting more familiar with her neighborhood each day. She wants to focus on bringing family-centered businesses into her ANC district - which is much less prosperous than the one represented by Spencer and Smith.
麦凯锡每天都对她所代表的社区多一些了解。她希望把以家庭为中心的小商业模式带入她的社区。这个社区不如斯潘塞和史密斯代表的社区来得繁华。
"I think that we need coffee shops and restaurants," says McKenzie. "We need restaurants that are sit-down not take-outs. We don’t need liquor stores."
麦凯锡说：“我觉得我们需要一些咖啡馆和餐馆，我们需要可以堂吃的餐馆，而不仅仅是那些专营外卖的餐馆。我们不需要卖酒的商店。”
The three young ANC commissioners will represent their neighborhoods for the next two years. Citizen politicians - making a difference one street corner at a time.
斯潘塞、史密斯和麦凯锡这三位年轻的小区咨询委员会委员，将在未来两年中代表他们的社区和市政府打交道。公民政治家们正在一条街一条街地改变着城市的面貌。 |