Craig Gurian

Craig Gurian is the editor of Remapping Debate.  He received his undergraduate degree from Columbia College, his law degree from Columbia Law School, and a master's degree in United States history from the Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Craig's published work includes Let Them Rent Cake: George Pataki, Market Ideology, and the Attempt to Dismantle Rent Regulation in New York.

He is also Executive Director of the Anti-Discrimination Center and an Adjunct Professor of Law at Fordham Law School.

cg@remappingdebate.org
Equally free to sleep under the bridge
Commentary | By Craig Gurian | Economy, Health care, Labor
Harvard economist Gregory Mankiw, writing in The New York Times, wants you to believe that a worker's acceptance of a job for no more than minimum wage and an individual's acceptance of a pre-ACA, bare bones insurance policy reflect voluntary arrangements. Even a moment's consideration shows that there is nothing genuinely voluntary about either of these arrangements. Mankiw is doing nothing so much as peddling the long-discredited fiction that there is equality at the moment of contract. More
Economic disaster for agriculture or proof of brutality of current system?
Commentary | By Craig Gurian | Agriculture, Immigration, Labor
Study commissioned by American Farm Bureau Federation (unintentionally) confirms agricultural sector's deep reliance on wildly underpaid undocumented workers. It warns that a shrinking of the labor supply would "spark a large-scale restructuring of the farm sector." But don't we need a fundamental restructuring if the current system only survives by relying so heavily on unfree labor? More
Christie's bigger sins
Commentary | By Craig Gurian | Politics
Yes, he’s a thug. Yes, he’s trying to change the subject. But isn’t there a lot more to report on about New Jersey Governor Chris Christie? Like the fact that he’s been guilty of wildly irresponsible and sometimes lawless behavior before. More
Getting community organizing right
Commentary | By Craig Gurian | Civil rights, Housing, NYC
Deep residential segregation underlies every major social inequity we have in New York City: disparities in education, health, and employment are just three of the big ones. The de Blasio administration promises a new era of activism and community participation, but will the energy generated ultimately reduce or perpetuate segregation? A great deal hinges on the nature of the community organizing that is encouraged. More
Out-of-network coverage in New York? We left it up to the insurers
Original Reporting | By Craig Gurian | Health care, Insurance
In most of New York State, it doesn’t matter what “metal level” you choose: you can’t get an individual or family health insurance plan on the state’s exchange that provides coverage for out-of-network physician care. How did the exchange come to be designed without a requirement of such coverage? That’s what the insurers chose. And some advocates for better health care are concerned. More
Not wanting to believe the results
Press Criticism | By Craig Gurian | Gender equity, NYC, Politics
How did the Times run a story suggesting, without basis, that voter bias may have played a material role in Chris Quinn’s dismal third place showing in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary? Missing: a willingness to confront the substantive reasons why voters rejected Quinn. Ever hear of the dictatorial way in which she ran the City Council? More
Let’s not have a conversation about race
Commentary | By Craig Gurian | Civil rights, History, Race
In the Barack Obama and Bill Clinton version of the Democratic Party, the goal is to have “conversations about race.” Or, at least, these two presidents have wanted to have intermittent conversations to the extent convenient. Once upon a time, those in favor of civil rights (as Obama and Clinton surely are) were more direct: they demanded action, not talk. More
Initial victory against NYPD in Freedom of Information suit
Original Reporting | By Craig Gurian | Freedom of information, NYC, Policing
Court settlement directs NYPD to provide Remapping Debate with copies of protest permit records previously withheld from us, and to pay our attorney's fees. But data provided so far is incomplete and fight will continue over Department's claim of having no records for key periods (including 1967 to 1969, a time of extensive protest). More

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