My name is Harold (he/they). I study barriers to economic opportunity and public policy solutions to help level the playing field, including policing disparities, neighborhood change, and access to public transit and education. Lately I spend a lot of time studying how the MTA and NYPD use public resources to police poverty at the subway turnstile, especially in historically overpoliced and systemically excluded communities. 

I'm a Lecturer in Discipline at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), where I teach courses in quantitative methods and data analysis. The idea is to help students work with data to explore policy problems and solutions, and interrogate how data is collected and analyzed in service of more inclusive public policy. I received my PhD in Economics and a Master's degree in Urban Policy Analysis from Columbia University.  Prior to joining SIPA full-time, I was the Senior Economist at the Community Service Society of NY―an organization working to promote upward mobility for low-income NYers through research, advocacy and direct service work.

Some things I get easily excited about include: nail art, sci-fi/fantasy/historical fiction, UK drill music, color theory, and inclusive community spaces.

Here is the latest of version of my paper: Policing Poverty: Evidence from a Subway Fare Evasion Crackdown

Here is a recent VICE News piece featuring my analysis of NYPD fare evasion enforcement data, and here is the expanded analysis.

Here is my op-ed on the fare evasion crackdown that ran in the New York Daily News (joint with David Jones).

Here is my analysis of racial disparities in fare evasion arrests across Brooklyn subway stations, using client data from Brooklyn public defender groups.

Here is my analysis of 311 calls that trigger police interactions in gentrifying neighborhoods.

Here is an interview I did about using "data for good" that appeared in the Morningside Post. 

Lastly, my CV.