tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/municipal-governments-60313/articlesMunicipal governments – The Conversation2020-04-07T20:00:11Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1357002020-04-07T20:00:11Z2020-04-07T20:00:11ZLack of help for local councils in coronavirus package undercuts industry support<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325942/original/file-20200407-6044-1odu41g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=229%2C2%2C1568%2C1007&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Warrick Lane redevelopment is a major construction project overseen by local government.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.facebook.com/BlacktownCityCouncil/photos/a.361317653902589/3036161719751489/?type=3&theater">Blacktown City Council/Facebook</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Local governments are <a href="https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-04/Fact_sheet_supporting_businesses_0.pdf">not eligible for the JobKeeper Payment</a>, while major industries like construction are. Although the JobKeeper scheme has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-130-billion-jobkeeper-payment-what-the-experts-think-135043">broadly welcomed</a>, it is a mystery to business why Australia’s <a href="https://alga.asn.au/about-alga/">537 local councils</a>, which provide vital support for industries like construction, are not eligible. The failure to include local councils (and their wholly owned corporations) will undermine the economic and social impact these policies are meant to have.</p>
<p>This just doesn’t make sense to business or local government. Business and industry are depending on their partnerships with local government to get through the coronavirus crisis. But local councils, which <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6248.0.55.002">employ almost 200,000 people</a>, are already <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-07/local-gov-struggle-to-keep-staff-coronavirus-jobkeeper-payments/12125312">laying off thousands</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/jobkeeper-payment-how-will-it-work-who-will-miss-out-and-how-to-get-it-135189">JobKeeper payment: how will it work, who will miss out and how to get it?</a>
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<p>Since construction directly <a href="http://lmip.gov.au/default.aspx?LMIP/GainInsights/IndustryInformation/Construction">employs about 1.2 million people</a> (9.2% of the workforce) and indirectly many more, construction sites remain “exempt” as the government closes down all non-essential businesses to combat coronavirus. As Urban Taskforce chief executive Tom Forrest <a href="https://www.urbantaskforce.com.au/clear-messages-from-government-construction-work-is-exempt-from-the-close-down-and-will-continue/">said</a>: </p>
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<p>The building and construction industry will be a critical player in driving the economy through this crisis. </p>
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<p>The federal government’s A$130 billion wage subsidy will cover businesses paying their employees A$1,500 a fortnight each for up to six months. Private businesses (including not-for-profits) will be <a href="https://www.business.gov.au/risk-management/emergency-management/coronavirus-information-and-support-for-business/jobkeeper-payment">eligible for the subsidy</a> if they meet the criteria. </p>
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<p>Self-employed individuals will similarly be eligible to receive the <a href="https://www.business.gov.au/risk-management/emergency-management/coronavirus-information-and-support-for-business/jobkeeper-payment">JobKeeper Payment</a>. </p>
<p>Registered charities will be eligible if their turnover has fallen or will likely fall by 15% or more relative to a comparable period. </p>
<p>Non-government schools and private vocational education providers are also eligible.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-oecd-estimates-suggest-a-22-hit-to-australias-economy-135026">New OECD estimates suggest a 22% hit to Australia's economy</a>
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<h2>What is happening to local government?</h2>
<p>Local government misses out. Yet revenues have been hit extremely hard since local government raises only <a href="https://alga.asn.au/policy-centre/financial-sustainability/">3.6% of its income from taxation and 90% from its own sources</a>. These include rates and fees for services – many of which have had to close. </p>
<p>As a result, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/councils-bleed-revenue-as-costs-from-coronavirus-surge-20200401-p54g58.html">city council revenues have plummeted</a>. For example, Blacktown City Council in Sydney estimates its monthly revenue has fallen by about A$1.7 million. The council employs around 2,300 people who serve a population of 400,000 people. </p>
<p>Like all local governments, it is responsible for a wide range of critical local services that support industries like construction that are exempt from current shutdowns. Councils provide planning and development approvals, childcare centres (26 in Blacktown’s case), waste management, infrastructure (such as roads and footpaths, parks, sporting grounds and swimming pools), housing, community amenities, transport and communications, recreation and culture and general public services. </p>
<p>The majority of freight tasks, which are central to keeping the economy going, start and finish on local government-controlled roads. These roads add up to about <a href="https://cdn.alga.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/ALGA-2019-Local-Government-Roads-and-Transport-Agenda.pdf">662,000km in length</a> – about 75% of the total national road length. Of 251.2 billion kilometres travelled in 2016, <a href="https://cdn.alga.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/ALGA-2019-Local-Government-Roads-and-Transport-Agenda.pdf">142.1 billion occurred in capital cities</a>.</p>
<p>Local councils also fund and support major construction projects. To return to the example of Blacktown, the A$76.5 million <a href="https://www.blacktown.nsw.gov.au/About-Council/What-we-do/Transformational-Projects/Warrick-Lane-redevelopment">Warrick Lane development</a> is part of the city centre transformation, which will provide major economic and social benefits for the people of Blacktown. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The Warrick Lane redevelopment is a major construction project that wouldn’t be happening if not for the city council.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Another Blacktown City project is the <a href="https://www.blacktown.nsw.gov.au/About-Council/What-we-do/Transformational-Projects/International-Centre-of-Training-Excellence">International Centre of Training Excellence</a>, a multisport high-performance education, sports medicine and accelerated recovery facility. It’s due to open in 2022.</p>
<p>Nationwide, local government owns and manages non-financial assets with an <a href="https://alga.asn.au/policy-centre/financial-sustainability/">estimated written-down value of A$408 billion</a> in 2015-16. Operational spending by councils totalled about A$35 billion in that year. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-cities-pay-the-price-for-blocking-council-input-to-projects-that-shape-them-127017">Australian cities pay the price for blocking council input to projects that shape them</a>
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<h2>A partner of industry and business</h2>
<p>Local government spending goes into providing industry support and services across the nation. If you take these services and supports away you undermine government efforts to stimulate industries like construction to get us through this crisis and recover from it. </p>
<p>You also introduce the risk that development approvals are granted without thorough assessments. That’s likely to lead to new problems down the line.</p>
<p>As the federal government says, keeping people in work and businesses open will lay the foundations for a stronger economic recovery once the coronavirus crisis passes. But local government support is key to this strategy. Most people would be concerned to know their local councils are not being supported in the same way as private businesses – some of which have accumulated millions in profits and are incorporated overseas. </p>
<p>The federal government rightly talks about partnership, collaboration and collective responsibility to get through this crisis. Local council activities are critical to the productivity, well-being and liveability of local communities and cumulatively to the nation at this time.</p>
<p>Disaster management experience and <a href="https://www.disaster.qld.gov.au/dmg/Pages/DM-Guideline.aspx">guidelines</a> tell us the response to any crisis must be bottom-up as well as top-down. This means local government’s role is crucial. How can this be achieved without a functioning local government supporting industry and communities to get through this pandemic?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/rebuilding-from-the-ashes-of-disaster-this-is-what-australia-can-learn-from-india-130385">Rebuilding from the ashes of disaster: this is what Australia can learn from India</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martin Loosemore receives funding from The Australian Research Council</span></em></p>Local councils work hand in hand with industries like construction. If the downturn is allowed to cripple councils, that will also hit essential businesses hard.Martin Loosemore, Professor of Construction Management, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1180552019-07-08T11:10:46Z2019-07-08T11:10:46ZNew York’s new rental protections won’t end the outsize influence of big developers who pay the city’s bills<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277160/original/file-20190530-69051-lpdjfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5483%2C3622&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New York has become a 'city for the rich' in recent decades, a shift in its real estate market that impacts policy-making, too.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/es/image-photo/new-york-city-beautiful-colorful-sunset-526412356">Alessandro Colle / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>New York has passed sweeping <a href="https://ny.curbed.com/2019/6/12/18661872/nyc-rent-stabilization-reform-legislation-universal-rent-control">new laws</a> that will close some legal loopholes that allowed the city’s 1 million rent-stabilized apartments to be deregulated and tenant protections bypassed.</p>
<p>State lawmakers are calling the legislation “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/11/nyregion/rent-protection-regulation.html?module=inline">the strongest tenant protections</a>” in the history of the city, which is fabled for its cutthroat housing market. </p>
<p>I’m a scholar who <a href="https://www.ie.edu/school-architecture-design/people/faculty/cem-kayatekin/">studies the socioeconomics of cities</a>, <a href="https://www.academia.edu/34465481/_Dissertation_The_Global_City_and_Its_Discontents_A_Study_of_New_York_Citys_Garment_District_1930-1980">particularly New York City</a>. While I recognize that this new law may prove important, my research points to a far weightier crisis that New York must address if it is to remain a livable city. </p>
<p>The city’s budget depends heavily on property taxes generated by extremely high-value real estate, and that distorts local policy-making in ways that hurt everyday residents. </p>
<h2>New York’s existential crisis: Property</h2>
<p>New York has the <a href="https://www.housingwire.com/articles/43253-here-are-the-top-10-most-expensive-rental-markets-in-the-us">second most expensive rental market</a> in the United States, after San Francisco. More than half of all New Yorkers <a href="https://100resilientcities.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/OneNYC-ilovepdf-compressed.pdf">spend more than 30% of their income</a> on housing – the limit of what is considered “<a href="https://www.census.gov/housing/census/publications/who-can-afford.pdf">affordable</a>” by the U.S. Census Bureau.</p>
<p>Between 2017 and 2018, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/05/20/nyregion/landlord-tenant-disputes-housing-court.html">16 households</a> in the Brooklyn borough of New York lost their homes each day on average. During that same period, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/05/20/nyregion/nyc-affordable-housing.html#">232,000 eviction notices</a> were filed against tenants in the city’s five boroughs. Homelessness is at a <a href="https://www.amny.com/news/nyc-homeless-in-shelters-1.30474501">record high</a>.</p>
<p>For decades New York mayors have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/15/opinion/l-giuliani-s-housing-plan-412643.html">promised</a> to <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/columnists/center-for-an-urban-future/1925">create more affordable housing</a>, without <a href="https://ny.curbed.com/2018/9/26/17901946/nyc-housing-affordability-decline-report-scott-stringer">making much progress</a>.</p>
<p>Now, New York Mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Bill de Blasio says his administration has <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-12/nyc-tenants-get-a-rent-law-blessing-that-landlords-see-as-curse">finally done the impossible</a>. He calls the city’s new rent laws “a remarkable achievement that will halt displacement, harassment and unjust evictions.” </p>
<p>Even a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/12/nyregion/landlord-rent-protection-regulation.html">phone call from significant real estate groups to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo</a> seeking to block the measures from going forward seemingly fell on deaf ears – much to big developers’ dismay. </p>
<p>Powerful real estate lobbies make <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/12/nyregion/landlord-rent-protection-regulation.html">significant contributions</a> to state political races and have successfully beaten back many past efforts to curb their profit margins in New York City. </p>
<p>Property taxes generated via New York City real estate have been a significant source of municipal revenue <a href="https://ibo.nyc.ny.us/cgi-park2/2018/08/how-has-the-mix-of-taxes-collected-by-new-york-city-changed-over-the-years/">starting in the 1920s</a>. In 2017 property taxes accounted for <a href="https://council.nyc.gov/budget/how-nycs-budget-works/#revenue-budget">about 30%</a> of the city’s $82 billion budget, which also includes income tax, state and federal grants and other smaller revenue streams. </p>
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<p>This makes property taxes by far the largest single source of income for New York City’s government. The tax revenue has been critical to the city’s survival <a href="https://observer.com/2015/05/a-taxing-matter-looking-back-on-the-history-of-421-a/">since the late 1970s</a>, when New York dug itself out of bankruptcy by cultivating a high-end real estate market to restore its tax base. </p>
<p>As historian Adam Curtis explains in his 2015 BBC documentary “<a href="https://thoughtmaybe.com/hypernormalisation/">Hypernormalisation</a>,” New York transitioned from hollowed-out metropolis to a glittering “city for the rich” in recent decades thanks to tax incentives given to developers – including Donald Trump – to build <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/feb/05/super-tall-super-skinny-super-expensive-the-pencil-towers-of-new-yorks-super-rich">extremely high-value condos</a> for millionaires and billionaires. </p>
<p>This has had a cascading effect across New York’s real estate market. A plot once priced to hold regular housing is now assessed based on its potential value as the site of high-end condos. Such real estate speculation <a href="https://news.berkeley.edu/2019/04/10/new-york-city-gentrification-creating-urban-islands-of-exclusion-study-finds/">fragments lower- and middle-class neighborhoods</a>, leading to the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/this-is-what-happens-after-a-neighborhood-gets-gentrified/432813/">expulsion of their residents</a> into the ever-increasing fringes of the city: gentrification. </p>
<h2>Unequal and opposing forces</h2>
<p>New York is not unique among American cities in relying heavily on property tax to fund public services. Property taxes accounted for approximately 22% of <a href="https://lacontroller.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/BUDGET-2017-18.pdf">Los Angeles’ budget last year</a> and <a href="https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/city/depts/obm/supp_info/2017%20Budget/2017BudgetOrdinance.pdf">approximately 21%</a> of Chicago’s. </p>
<p>What is unique is New York’s reliance on high-end real estate as the primary way to generate that property tax income. This dependency hurts not just the housing market but also the city’s ability to prepare for climate change, my research finds.</p>
<p>In March, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a US$10 billion “<a href="http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/03/bill-de-blasio-my-new-plan-to-climate-proof-lower-manhattan.html">plan to climate-proof lower Manhattan</a>” – a slice of the city that is home to Wall Street, the Financial District and other swaths of high-value property.</p>
<p>Declaring climate change “<a href="http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/03/bill-de-blasio-my-new-plan-to-climate-proof-lower-manhattan.html">the greatest threat to our survival</a>,” de Blasio has called for extending lower Manhattan’s footprint into the surrounding waterways, establishing berms high enough to keep flood waters at bay.</p>
<p>“Six years ago, Hurricane Sandy slammed into New York City,” de Blasio wrote in a March op-ed in New York Magazine. “The storm put 51 square miles of it under water. Seventeen thousand homes were damaged or destroyed. Forty-four New Yorkers lost their lives.”</p>
<p>Many <a href="https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/2019/05/29/de-blasios-climate-rhetoric-on-the-stump-doesnt-mirror-reality-back-home-1032693">frustrated New Yorkers</a> found the “our” in de Blasio’s concern for “our survival” rather confusing. </p>
<p>Of the 44 New Yorkers who died in Hurricane Sandy, only <a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/11/17/nyregion/hurricane-sandy-map.html">two lost their lives in lower Manhattan</a>. Likewise, lower Manhattan makes up a minuscule piece of the 51 square miles of New York that was submerged during the storm. </p>
<p>The mayor’s resiliency plan doesn’t protect the most vulnerable people or places in New York, like Rockaway Beach, Queens and Dumbo, Brooklyn – it protects the most valuable part.</p>
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<span class="caption">The Dumbo neighborhood of Brooklyn was one of many places that experienced severe flooding during Hurricane Sandy on Oct. 29, 2012.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-Superstorm-Sandy/584d260af0774cce9f884e1a0235001b/3/0">AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews</a></span>
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<p>Residents and real estate are two unequal and opposing forces in City Hall. Caught between the interests of 9 million New Yorkers and the Financial District’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/nyregion/manhattan-climate-change-hurricane-sandy.html">$60 billion worth of property</a>, de Blasio – or any New York mayor – will always struggle to represent, to govern, the whole city. </p>
<p>To maintain its fiscal and structural health, the city government must protect its real estate developments that cater to the superwealthy. But to retain its social stability, livability and to survive climate change, it must protect its residents – significant numbers of whom are <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/poor-people-living-high-poverty-neighborhoods-nyc-article-1.3227239">poor and working-class</a>, not superrich.</p>
<h2>Real resiliency</h2>
<p>To meet the dual challenges of affordability and climate change, New York must wrest its financial livelihood from the grip of property taxes, restructuring its economy such that the city’s municipal finances – and by extension, governance – serve a broader array of interests and sectors.</p>
<p>This urban budgetary problem, which affects many cities worldwide to a greater or lesser degree, is one of the main subjects of my current research.</p>
<p>One of a few models I am investigating is that of Berlin, which in June voted in favor of passing a <a href="https://www.citylab.com/equity/2019/06/berlin-rent-freeze-senate-vote-affordable-housing/592051/?fbclid=IwAR1T1QsGokBj_t2S2bZcZ1_-ImjiITZE7Fc_thM50jKKGwcKua-slFJiNWg">five-year rent freeze</a> to suppress rapidly rising housing prices. </p>
<p>Berlin can contemplate this relatively radical policy because the city’s budgetary reliance on property taxes has dropped from <a href="http://www1.worldbank.org/publicsector/decentralization/June2003Seminar/Germany.pdf">around 35% to 15% over the past seven decades</a>. Value-added tax, income and corporate tax make up the difference, supplying <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=2ahUKEwjlqrHK3ZnjAhUtQRUIHS0rAL0QFjAAegQIBBAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.berlin.de%2Fsen%2Ffinanzen%2Fdokumentendownload%2Fvermoegen%2Ffitch-rating-report_state-of-berlin-2016.pdf&usg=AOvVaw3VY7dE6F-YonGUkWbgIYJF">around 61% of the city’s revenue stream</a>. </p>
<p>That means developers don’t hold the same financial or political sway in Berlin as they do in New York, and public services don’t depend on ever more $50 million condos getting built. </p>
<p>Identifying other cities that, like Berlin, have broad-based budgets may begin to shed light on ways New York could build a sustainable revenue model that will help it to untangle the isolated interests of property from the interests of the whole city.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118055/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cem S. Kayatekin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New York City’s municipal budget relies heavily on the property taxes of extremely high-value real estate. That drives gentrification and distorts local policy in other ways that hurt residents.Cem S. Kayatekin, Assistant Professor of Architecture / Urbanism, IE School of Architecture and Design, IE UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1180892019-06-04T20:18:33Z2019-06-04T20:18:33ZHackers seek ransoms from Baltimore and communities across the US<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277964/original/file-20190604-69091-n0othk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1016%2C729%2C3720%2C2447&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many of Baltimore's city services are crippled by a cyberattack.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/laptop-blank-screen-on-tableblur-background-440302609">The Conversation from City of Baltimore and Love Silhouette/Shutterstock.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The people of Baltimore are beginning their fifth week under an <a href="https://www.governing.com/topics/public-justice-safety/gov-cyber-attack-security-ransomware-baltimore-bitcoin.html">electronic siege</a> that has prevented residents from <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-open-baltimore-ransomware-20190513-story.html">obtaining</a> building permits and business licenses – and even <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/05/21/725118702/ransomware-cyberattacks-on-baltimore-put-city-services-offline">buying or selling homes</a>. A year after hackers <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-ci-hack-folo-20180328-story.html">disrupted</a> the city’s emergency services dispatch system, city workers throughout the city are unable to, among other things, use their government email accounts or conduct <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-property-deeds-20190524-story.html">routine city business</a>. </p>
<p>In this attack, a type of malicious software called ransomware has encrypted key files, rendering them unusable until the city pays the unknown attackers 13 bitcoin, or about US$76,280. But even if the city were to pay up, there is no guarantee that its files would all be recovered; many ransomware attacks <a href="https://cyber-edge.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/CyberEdge-2019-CDR-Report.pdf#page=14">end with the data lost</a>, whether the ransom is paid or not.</p>
<p>Similar attacks in recent years have <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/10/11/wannacry-cyber-attack-cost-nhs-92m-19000-appointments-cancelled/">crippled</a> the United Kingdom’s National Health Service, <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/notpetya-cyberattack-ukraine-russia-code-crashed-the-world/">shipping giant Maersk</a> and <a href="https://www.recordedfuture.com/state-local-government-ransomware-attacks/">local, county and state governments across the U.S.</a> and <a href="https://www.thespec.com/news-story/8902484-opp-warn-of-ransomware-attacks-on-municipal-governments/">Canada</a>.</p>
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<p>These types of attacks are becoming more frequent and gaining more media attention. Speaking as a career cybersecurity professional, the technical aspects of incidents like this are but one part of a much bigger picture. Every user of technology must consider not only threats and vulnerabilities, but also operational processes, potential points of failure and how they use technology on a daily basis. Thinking ahead, and taking protective steps, can help reduce the effects of cybersecurity incidents on both individuals and organizations.</p>
<h2>Understanding cyberattack tools</h2>
<p>Software designed to attack other computers is nothing new. Nations, private companies, individual researchers and criminals continue developing these types of programs, for a wide range of <a href="https://theconversation.com/america-is-dropping-cyberbombs-but-how-do-they-work-58476">purposes</a>, including digital warfare and intelligence gathering, as well as extortion by ransomware.</p>
<p>Many malware efforts begin as a normal and crucial function of cybersecurity: identifying software and hardware vulnerabilities that could be exploited by an attacker. Security researchers then work to close that vulnerability. By contrast, malware developers, criminal or otherwise, will figure out how to get through that opening undetected, to explore and potentially wreak havoc in a target’s systems.</p>
<p>Sometimes a <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-are-software-vulnerabilities-and-why-are-there-so-many-of-them-77930">single weakness is enough</a> to give an intruder the access they want. But other times attackers will use multiple vulnerabilities in combination to infiltrate a system, take control, steal data and modify or delete information – while trying to hide any evidence of their activity from security programs and personnel. The challenge is so great that <a href="https://www.rsaconference.com/writable/presentations/file_upload/spo1-t11_combatting-advanced-cybersecurity-threats-with-ai-and-machine-learning_copy1.pdf">artificial intelligence and machine learning systems</a> are now also being incorporated to help with cybersecurity activities.</p>
<p>There’s some question about the role the federal government <a href="https://cybersecpolitics.blogspot.com/2019/05/baltimore-is-not-eternalblue.html">may have played</a> in this situation, because one of the hacking tools the attackers <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/31/us/nsa-baltimore-ransomware.html">reportedly</a> used in Baltimore was <a href="https://money.cnn.com/2016/01/12/technology/nsa-michael-hayden-us-hacker-thief/index.html">developed</a> by the U.S. National Security Agency, which the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/31/us/nsa-baltimore-ransomware.html">NSA has denied</a>. However, hacking tools stolen from the NSA in 2017 by the hacker group <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/05/shadow-brokers/527778/">Shadow Brokers</a> were used to launch <a href="http://www.cyberdefensemagazine.com/at-least-3-different-groups-have-been-leveraging-the-nsa-eternalblue-exploit-whats-went-wrong">similar attacks</a> within months of those tools being posted on the internet. Certainly, those tools should never have been stolen from the NSA – and should have been better protected. </p>
<p>But my views are more complicated than that: As a citizen, I recognize the NSA’s mandate to research and develop advanced tools to protect the country and fulfill its national security mission. However, <a href="https://theconversation.com/should-spies-use-secret-software-vulnerabilities-77770">like many cybersecurity professionals</a>, I remain conflicted: When the government discovers a new technology vulnerability but doesn’t tell the maker of the affected hardware or software until after it’s used to cause havoc or disclosed by a leak, everyone is at risk.</p>
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<h2>Baltimore’s situation</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.govtech.com/security/Estimates-Put-Baltimores-Ransomware-Recovery-at-18-2-M.html">estimated $18 million cost of recovery</a> in Baltimore is money the city likely doesn’t have readily available. Recent research by some of my colleagues at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, shows that many state and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13028">local governments remain woefully underprepared</a> and underfunded to adequately, let alone proactively, deal with cybersecurity’s many challenges. </p>
<p>It is concerning that the ransomware attack in Baltimore exploited a vulnerability that has been publicly <a href="https://gizmodo.com/you-need-to-patch-your-older-windows-pcs-right-now-to-p-1835158876">known</a> about – with an available fix – <a href="http://fortune.com/2019/06/01/baltimore-nsa-ransowmare-microsoft-windows-eternalblue/">for over two years</a>. NSA had developed an exploit (code-named EternalBlue) for this discovered security weakness but didn’t alert Microsoft about this critical security vulnerability until early 2017 – and only after the Shadow Brokers had stolen the NSA’s tool to attack it. Soon after, Microsoft <a href="https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/msrc/2017/04/14/protecting-customers-and-evaluating-risk/">issued a software security update</a> to fix this key flaw in its Windows operating system.</p>
<p>Admittedly, it can be very complex to manage software updates for a large organization. But given the media coverage at the time about the unauthorized disclosure of many NSA hacking tools and the vulnerabilities they targeted, it’s unclear why Baltimore’s information technology staff didn’t ensure the city’s computers received that particular security update immediately. And while it’s not necessarily fair to <a href="https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2019/05/nsa-deflects-blame-baltimore-ransomware-attack/157376/">blame the NSA</a> for the Baltimore incident, it is entirely fair to say that the knowledge and techniques behind the tools of digital warfare are out in the world; we must learn to live with them and adapt accordingly.</p>
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<h2>Compounding problems</h2>
<p>In a global society where people, companies and governments are increasingly dependent on computers, digital weaknesses have the power to seriously disrupt or destroy everyday actions and functions.</p>
<p>Even trying to develop workarounds when a crisis hits can be challenging. Baltimore city employees who were blocked from using the city’s email system tried to set up free Gmail accounts to at least get some work done. But they were initially blocked by <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/23/18637638/google-gmail-baltimore-ransomware-attacks">Google’s automated security systems</a>, which identified them as <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-gmail-accounts-20190523-story.html">potentially fraudulent</a>. </p>
<p>Making matters worse, when Baltimore’s online services went down, <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-city-agencies-ransomware-20190509-story.html">parts</a> of the city’s municipal phone system couldn’t handle the resulting increase in calls attempting to compensate. This underscores the need to not only focus on technology products themselves but also the policies, procedures and capabilities needed to ensure individuals and/or organizations can remain at least minimally functional when under duress, whether by cyberattack, technology failures or acts of nature.</p>
<h2>Protecting yourself, and your livelihood</h2>
<p>The first step to <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-easier-to-defend-against-ransomware-than-you-might-think-57258">fighting a ransomware attack</a> is to regularly back up your data – which also provides protection against hardware failures, theft and other problems. To deal with ransomware, though, it’s particularly important to keep a few versions of your backups over time – don’t just rewrite the same files on a backup drive over and over. </p>
<p>That’s because when you get hit, you’ll want to determine when you were infected and restore files from a backup made before that time. Otherwise, you’ll just be recovering infected data, and not actually fixing your problem. Yes, you might lose some data, but not everything – and presumably only your most recent work, which you’ll probably remember and recreate easily enough.</p>
<p>And of course, following <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-easier-to-defend-against-ransomware-than-you-might-think-57258">some of cybersecurity’s best practices</a> – even just the basics – can help prevent, or at least minimize, the possibility of ransomware crippling you or your organization. Doing things like running current antivirus software, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-petya-ransomware-attack-shows-how-many-people-still-dont-install-software-updates-77667">keeping all software updated</a>, using <a href="https://theconversation.com/using-truly-secure-passwords-6-essential-reads-84092">strong passwords</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-age-of-hacking-brings-a-return-to-the-physical-key-73094">multifactor authentication</a>, and not blindly trusting random devices or email attachments you encounter are just some of the steps everyone should take to be a good digital citizen.</p>
<p>It’s also worth making plans to work around potential failures that might befall your email provider, internet service provider and power company, not to mention the software we rely on. Whether they’re attacked or <a href="https://gizmodo.com/major-google-outage-hits-youtube-g-suite-and-third-pa-1835189852">simply fail</a>, their absence can disrupt your life.</p>
<p>In this way, ransomware incidents serve as an important reminder that cybersecurity is not just limited to protecting digital bits and bytes in cyberspace. Rather, it should force everyone to think broadly and holistically about their relationship with technology and the processes that govern its role and use in our lives. And, it should make people consider how they might function without parts of it at both work and home, because it’s a matter of when, not if, problems will occur.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118089/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Forno has received research funding related to cybersecurity from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Defense (DOD) during his academic career, and sits on the advisory board of BlindHash, a cybersecurity startup focusing remedying the password problem.</span></em></p>Ransomware has crippled governments and companies around the world, encrypting data and demanding payment for the decryption key – though that’s no guarantee of recovering the information.Richard Forno, Senior Lecturer, Cybersecurity & Internet Researcher, University of Maryland, Baltimore CountyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1039782018-10-02T22:40:54Z2018-10-02T22:40:54ZToronto must keep fighting Doug Ford – for the good of democracy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238460/original/file-20180928-48641-1ajcq6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ontario Premier Doug Ford returns to the provincial legislature during a midnight session to debate the bill that cut the size of Toronto city council from 47 representatives to 25 in September 2018. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After the Ontario Court of Appeal <a href="http://www.ontariocourts.ca/decisions/2018/2018ONCA0761.htm">recently ruled</a> that Toronto’s upcoming municipal election would go ahead with 25 wards instead of 47, the province <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2018/09/06/doug-ford-sets-sights-on-ontario-place-redevelopment.html">turned its attention</a> to the city’s waterfront. </p>
<p>There’s speculation Premier Doug Ford has a <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/toronto/article-gambling-industry-eyes-downtown-waterfront/">personal interest</a> in reviving the idea of a casino on the city’s waterfront. </p>
<p>In 2013, when Ford was a councillor, Toronto city council <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/its-over-toronto-council-votes-overwhelmingly-against-downtown-casino/article12039624/">rejected a downtown casino</a> in a near-unanimous vote. Likewise, municipalities in the pre-amalgamated Toronto <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/duncan-to-toronto-if-you-dont-want-the-casino-someone-else-will/article4178935/">fiercely opposed</a> the creation of a casino in 1997. </p>
<p>Renewed provincial interest in pushing the deeply unpopular idea forward may give us a hint into why the Ford government was so determined to shrink Toronto city council.</p>
<p>After the court’s decision was released, government House Leader Todd Smith <a href="https://ipolitics.ca/2018/09/20/after-slashing-toronto-council-province-ready-to-extend-olive-branch/">told reporters</a> that having a “streamlined council” would allow the government to “move forward with all of our election promises.”</p>
<p>This reaction should make us fear for the power of local governments not just in Ontario, but all of Canada.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fords-fight-with-toronto-shows-legal-vulnerability-of-cities-103134">Ford's fight with Toronto shows legal vulnerability of cities</a>
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<h2>Municipalities are democratic institutions</h2>
<p>While they do not have <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/ext/digital_comm/inquiry/inquiry_site/cd/gg/add_pdf/77/Governance/Electronic_Documents/Other_CDN_Jurisdictions/Powers_of_Canadian_Cities.pdf">constitutional status</a>, Canadian municipalities are crucial democracies that are grounded in particular locales. </p>
<p>The Court of Appeal’s dismissal of the impact of the diminished number of wards in Toronto as merely “inconvenient” displays a lack of understanding of the way these local democracies work. </p>
<p>Unlike provincial and federal candidates, aspiring and elected municipal councillors must speak to voters about their streets, their community centres, development applications in their neighbourhoods. While there are many issues that matter across the city, local politics is just that: local. These local issues are often what voters want to talk about at the dinner table, at the door and on the street. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238456/original/file-20180928-48665-tljxve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238456/original/file-20180928-48665-tljxve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238456/original/file-20180928-48665-tljxve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238456/original/file-20180928-48665-tljxve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238456/original/file-20180928-48665-tljxve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238456/original/file-20180928-48665-tljxve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238456/original/file-20180928-48665-tljxve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Toronto Mayor John Tory peers around a wall at Toronto City Hall in September 2018 after council discussed the Ontario government’s legislation to reduce the size of Toronto city council.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span>
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<p>In the wake of Ontario’s <a href="https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-42/session-1/bill-5">Bill 5</a> to shrink the size of Toronto city council, Todd Smith’s comments along with casino speculation confuse the role of municipal governments. Are city councillors elected to facilitate the agenda of the province? Or are they elected to deliver on the agenda city councillors put forward to voters at the local level? </p>
<h2>Now what?</h2>
<p>In the City of Toronto, the answer is clear: Like all municipalities, city council is a level of government deserving of recognition and autonomy.</p>
<p>Many residents are disappointed the election will go forward on Oct. 22 with 25 wards. Even so, it’s important to forge ahead and seize this moment to affirm and expand the meaning and practice of local democracy.</p>
<p>The complex work of municipalities is everywhere in our day-to-day lives. City governance can look chaotic and messy from the outside. But we should not mistake messiness for ineffectiveness. Indeed, much of the appearance of messiness pertains to the transparency required of municipal councils compared to provincial or federal governments. </p>
<p>While city councils <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/06c11#BK253">must deliberate most issues in the open</a> — in council chambers, or at planning meetings and community consultations — provincial cabinets meet behind closed doors, spending unknown hours or days deliberating out of public view. Even the “open” nature of debates in the Ontario legislature has been limited recently, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2018/09/12/protesters-handcuffed-amid-a-chaotic-scene-in-the-ontario-legislature.html">with galleries cleared</a> during debates over the Toronto legislation.</p>
<h2>More mess, not less</h2>
<p>The City of Toronto and its residents should use the new 25-ward model to push for other forms of local democratic decision-making. </p>
<p>Toronto city council is far from perfect. Indeed, regardless of the chaos caused by Bill 5, local governance can be galvanized through the empowerment of community councils and local planning bodies. Toronto already has four <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/municode/1184_027.pdf">delegated community councils</a> that make decisions and recommendations to council about a range of issues. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238461/original/file-20180928-48641-3yzgb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238461/original/file-20180928-48641-3yzgb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238461/original/file-20180928-48641-3yzgb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238461/original/file-20180928-48641-3yzgb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238461/original/file-20180928-48641-3yzgb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238461/original/file-20180928-48641-3yzgb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238461/original/file-20180928-48641-3yzgb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238461/original/file-20180928-48641-3yzgb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">More mess – and more protest? All Canadians should stand up for their municipal governments. Protesters against Ford’s plan to shrink Toronto city council are seen in September 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Tijana Martin</span></span>
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<p>We can learn a lot from <a href="https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1268&context=jlsp">how the 2013 casino debate unfolded</a>, when the Toronto-East York community council played a crucial role by examining in detail the effects on local communities regarding traffic, addiction and businesses. </p>
<p>There are <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/big-city-mayors-ready-to-push-urban-agenda/article22740407/">many important issues</a> best dealt with at the local level; hence the <a href="http://publications.gc.ca/collections/Collection-R/LoPBdP/PRB-e/PRB0252-e.pdf">growing importance</a> of local governments across Canada. On crucial issues like climate change, <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/ext/digital_comm/inquiry/inquiry_site/cd/gg/add_pdf/77/Governance/Electronic_Documents/Other_CDN_Jurisdictions/Powers_of_Canadian_Cities.pdf">cities have emerged</a> as some of the most effective actors globally.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-american-cities-and-states-are-fighting-climate-change-globally-88460">How American cities & states are fighting climate change globally</a>
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<p>Local governments have also been at the forefront pushing for more affordable housing and better transit.</p>
<p>Some argue that we should rethink Canada’s Constitution in the wake of Ford’s successful move to shrink Toronto city council. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities <a href="https://fcm.ca/home/media/news-and-commentary/2018/fcm-statement-following-board-of-directors-meeting.htm">stated recently</a>:</p>
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<p>“Local governments are building a more liveable, competitive Canada. We are ready to have an important conversation about greater municipal autonomy, and the tools needed to support it.” </p>
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<p>Changes should start at home, by building strong and vibrant democratic structures in our neighbourhoods and communities. </p>
<p>Torontonians — not the province — should decide whether to have a casino on the city’s waterfront. </p>
<p>City councillors and the public were best able to speak to the consequences of a downtown casino in 2013. They still are. The key to improving city governance is to add more democracy, more openness and more messiness — not less.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103978/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Estair Van Wagner is affiliated with the Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexandra Flynn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>City council is a level of government deserving of recognition and autonomy. That’s why Toronto must continue to fight Ontario’s attempt to exert its will over the city.Estair Van Wagner, Assistant Professor, York University, CanadaAlexandra Flynn, Assistant Professor of Human Geography & City Studies, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.