Jeremy Davis, enrollment services adviser for the student financial aid office, has joined the race for the 3rd Ward seat on Ames City Council.

Davis said Ames needs better long-term vision when dealing with the land use policy, affordable housing and general economic growth.

“Decisions seem to be made by short-term reactive instead of long-term proactive,” he said. “One of the big things for long-term vision is affordable housing for young families and single-parent families.”

Affordable housing can help attract young people and families to Ames, Davis said.

“Affordable, high-quality housing helps make our community more attractive to young professionals and young families,” he said.

Another of Davis’ goals is to work on the revitalization of neighborhoods to further the “one community” concept.

“With each neighborhood working and connecting within, and then bringing them all together will create full cohesiveness of Ames and the ISU community,” he said. “We need to encourage residential development in priority areas throughout Ames.”

Davis came to Iowa State in 1996. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in agriculture education and two master’s degrees in agriculture education and higher education.

Davis said he would like to get more students involved throughout the community.

“We need to work with students to get them to connect with the city of Ames as a whole,” he said. “We need to have more events that really help the students see the residents and just offering more opportunities for them to get involved in.”

Davis is running against Councilman Daryle Vegge and and ISU student Ryan Doll, senior in political science, for the 3rd Ward seat.

“This is not a decision I took lightly,” he said. “Ames is pretty much at a crossroads and needs strong leadership and direction to bring it to the future.”