空中一窺曼哈頓的屋頂泳池

High above the sweaty streets lies Manhattan's most hidden luxury: the rooftop pool.

曼哈頓擁擠街道上空隱藏着最祕密的奢侈：屋頂游泳池。

In New York City, it's always about numbers. The Department of Environmental Protection has picked some 1,700 municipal-owned properties — 500 schools, 600 comfort stations, 10 housing projects, 400 spray showers and 87 parks among them — to help the city cut back on water use. For locals nobly struggling to conserve resources, there is also this number to make them steam: $7.5 million. That's the asking price for a four-bedroom apartment in Franklin Place, a luxury condo development in TriBeCa with a rooftop pool.

在紐約市，一切都與數字有關。環境保護部挑選了大約1700個市屬地產——包括500個學校，600個公廁，10個住宅，400個噴泉和87個公園——以幫助本市減少用水量。對努力節約水資源的當地人來說，還有個數字會讓他們很生氣：750萬美元。它是特里貝克區奢侈公寓大樓富蘭克林公寓(Franklin Place)的一個帶屋頂泳池的四居室公寓的要價。

You wouldn't know it, but they're up there — those turquoise oases, invisible to those of us who cope each day with sour summer smells, sweltering subway platforms and scorching sidewalks. More than any other city, New York converts the graph of its income inequality into a vertical urban plan, with most people spread out at street level — conniving to linger for just one extra second before an air-conditioned storefront when its door swings open — and the lucky few in their secret aeries and tiny triangle bikinis, lolling poolside.

你可能不知道，但它們就在上面——那些藍綠色的綠洲。我們這些每天忍受着夏天的酸腐味、悶熱的地鐵站臺和灼熱的人行道的人是看不見的。紐約把收入差距表現爲垂直的城市規劃，在這一點上它甚於其他任何城市。大部分人生活在街面上，當有空調的店面的門轉開時，縱容自己在那裏多停留一秒；而幸運的少數人待在祕密的屋頂上，穿着小小的三角形比基尼，懶洋洋地躺在泳池邊。

Once upon a time, relief from summer in the city meant a vandalized fire hydrant or a snooze on the fire escape. When I was growing up in New York, the closest thing to a rooftop pool was dropping water balloons onto friends from my second-story window, before trading places so they could drop them on me. Rooftops were deserts of sticky blacktop, the last places to which any sane New Yorker would retreat. And rooftop pools were as exotic as soccer fans. But now they're proliferating as come-ons for condos and hotels — whose developers, truth be told, would probably prefer erecting more lucrative penthouses but must occasionally meet bothersome green requirements. Landscaped pools help turn those requirements to their advantage.

很久以前，城市裏的夏季避暑方法就是故意破壞消防龍頭，或者在安全出口打個盹。我在紐約長大時，最接近在屋頂游泳的活動是從二樓窗戶往樓下的朋友們身上丟水氣球，然後交換位置，讓他們往我身上丟。當時的屋頂是粘糊糊的瀝青荒漠，任何理智的紐約人都不會去那裏避暑。屋頂泳池和足球迷一樣是罕見事物。但是現在它們數量激增，成了公寓或酒店的賣點——說實話，開發商們很可能願意修建更多賺錢的頂層公寓，但是有時必須達到麻煩的綠化要求。景色宜人的泳池把這種要求變成了優勢。

Are we jealous? The pools are utilitarian, occasionally clumsy architecture, mostly devised to maintain an aura of exclusivity. The real estate market thrives on amenity envy. And yet, envy aside, there is something deliciously voyeuristic about helicopter photographs of a suddenly unfamiliar, upturned cityscape dotted with David Hockney bathers in dappled water and lounge chairs. Those chairs come with their own numbers. The Dream Downtown, a hotel in the Meatpacking District, charges $175 a day to use the pool, Monday through Thursday. A cabana on the weekend will set you back at least $2,500.

我們嫉妒嗎？泳池是功利主義的、有時甚至是笨拙的建築，大多是爲了體現它的專享性。真正的地產市場靠的是令人羨慕的便利設施。但是，先不談嫉妒，只說那些用直升機俯拍出來的照片，它們有一種好玩的偷窺意味——城市景觀向上伸展，變得陌生，散佈在水波盪漾的泳池中或躺椅上的游泳者很像大衛·霍克尼(David Hockney)的油畫。這些椅子也是有標價的。肉庫區的夢想市中心酒店(Dream Downtown)週一至週四租用一天泳池要價175美元。週末租一個有涼臺的小屋至少要收2500美元。