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As John George remembers it, the Detroit neighborhood he grew up in was straight out of Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life".
正如約翰·喬治所記得的，他在底特律長大的那個社區就好像出自弗蘭克·卡普拉的電影《生活多美好》。
"We knew all our neighbors," George, 60, told Detroit's Metro Times.
60歲的喬治告訴底特律的《地鐵時報》，“我們認識所有的鄰居。”
"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.
“在圣誕前夜，我們都會去參加子夜彌撒，在凌晨1點到5點，我們家會有300人。
The folks were just really good, hardworking people."
這些人真的很好，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，老社區比貝德福德瀑布鎮更像波特斯維爾。
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，由于經濟衰退和全國性的毒品泛濫，維護良好的房屋被遺棄，好心的鄰居們逃到了郊區。
But not George. "Living in any city, it's like being in a relationship," he told Reader's Digest.
但喬治沒有這樣做。他在接受《讀者文摘》采訪時表示：“住在任何城市，都像是在談戀愛。”
"Some days are better than others. But it was my home.
“有些時光要比其他的時光要好。但是這是我的家鄉。
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."
當我看到它不斷變差的時候，我有兩個選擇：我可以離開，或者可以留下來戰斗。我決定留下來戰斗。”
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.
當他身后那座被遺棄的房子變成一個破屋子時，兩個孩子的父親抓起一些膠合板和釘子，開始用木板搭房子。
After two neighbors stopped to ask what he was doing, they decided to help, with great results.
兩個鄰居停下來問他在做什么，他們決定幫忙，結果很好。
"When the drug dealers came back, they turned around and went home," says George. "That's how it all got started."
“當毒販回來后，他們轉身回家，”喬治說。“事情就是這樣開始的。”
"It is Detroit Blight Busters, or DBB, an organization of civic-minded volunteers dedicated to reviving the city they love,
這是底特律疫病克星組織（DBB），一個由熱心公益的志愿者組成的組織，致力于振興他們熱愛的城市，
one abandoned house, one vacant lot, and one garbage-strewn park at a time.
一個廢棄的房子，一片空地，一個垃圾遍地的公園。
In the 30 years since that first home rescue, an army of approximately 182,000 volunteers,
在第一次家園救援之后的30年里，一支由大約182,000名志愿者組成的軍隊，
along with corporate and private donors, has helped George demolish around 300 derelict homes, mostly in the poorer Northwest area of Detroit.
和企業和個人捐贈者一起，幫助喬治拆除了大約300座被遺棄的房屋，大部分位于底特律較貧窮的西北部地區。
They've also secured 400-some homes by boarding them up, thus keeping bad actors out.
他們還將400多所房屋用木板固定起來，從而將壞人擋在門外。
They've painted and renovated nearly 900 homes and built over 100 from scratch.
他們粉刷和翻新了近900座房屋，并從零開始建造了100多座房屋。
According to Forbes, more than 1,000 Detroiters have been housed as a result of DBB's work.
根據福布斯的數據，超過1000名底特律人因為DBB的工作而被安置。
