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
Two profoundly un-ambitious budget plans
Commentary | By Craig Gurian | Budget deficit
You can’t go five minutes without reading press accounts that characterize the Obama-Boehner budgetary prescription as “ambitious.” One particularly bewitched commentator explained that the House Speaker had “lofty budget goals.” Is there anything less ambitious than plans to guarantee that our children and our grandchildren will live less well than we do? More
NYT: still wearing its politics on its newsroom sleeve
Press Criticism | By Craig Gurian | Politics
National political reporters for the New York Times appear to have trouble resisting the lure of always seeing the political center as being "reasonable" and "practical." And it impairs their work. Remapping Debate is documenting the scope of the problem — illustratively, not comprehensively. We started with an emphasis on the practice of having reporter opinions and assumptions neatly tucked into a story as though they were facts, and we've found that there are similar debate-constricting problems that recur as well. More
Gov. Cuomo’s faux victory on behalf of NYC renters
Commentary | By Craig Gurian | Housing, NYC, Politics
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo may describe a tentative deal on extending rent regulation for millions of New York City tenants as one representing “significant progress,” but the reality is that he has left the trigger points at which apartments are deregulated worse for tenants than they were 14 years ago, when then-Governor George Pataki first orchestrated legislative changes designed to destroy rent regulation over time. The fundamental changes that Pataki put in place are untouched by Cuomo’s paltry efforts. More
As AARP embraces social security cuts, its pattern of misleading rhetoric comes into focus
Commentary | By Craig Gurian | Social Security
However much money AARP spends, and however many town hall meetings it holds, its rationalizations for shifting position just won’t stand scrutiny. AARP isn't hopping aboard a ship that was already sailing, but rather choosing to provide critical momentum and cover to resuscitate the benefits-cutting effort. More
Caught in the act
Commentary | By Craig Gurian | Education, Health care, Labor, NYC
Today’s robbing of the NYC employees’ health insurance fund as a “realistic” means to pay to avoid layoffs will become tomorrow’s hysterically anti-union “health benefits costs are out of control” rallying cry. More
Foreclosure relief programs didn't have to be "just voluntary"
Commentary | By Craig Gurian | Banking, Housing, Regulation
Faced with evidence of the ineffectiveness of its foreclosure prevention efforts, the Administration shrugs its shoulders and says it has "limited levers." The limitations are not a necessary fact of life, but a function of the view that forcing financial institutions to modify mortgages would be an affront to the dignity and sovereignty of banks. More
Let them rent cake: George Pataki, market ideology, and the attempt to dismantle rent regulation in New York
Readable Research | By Craig Gurian | Housing
With rent regulation set to expire next month if not renewed by the state legislature, and with New York's governor having failed to specify how, if at all, he would like the system strengthened, Remapping Debate looks back at the crucial moment when believers in market theology were able to weaken the regulation system profoundly. More
Disappearing patient choice courtesy of private health insurer?
Original Reporting | By Craig Gurian | Health care
Oxford Health Plans, a UnitedHealthcare company, is rolling out renewal plans this spring for small businesses of two to 50 employees whereby the company is increasing the total employee financial responsibility for an out-of-network doctor visit or procedure by more than 50 percent. According the chair of the Health Committee of the New York State Assembly: “While Oxford [members] will technically have the choice of going out of network, for many of them that will not be a realistic option, so it is, in effect, a dramatic restriction of their health care options.” More

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