In his work as the director of the School of Commerce at the Dryades YMCA, Jay Banks has close ties to families as their children go from pre-K to graduation, to jobs and productive lives.
He has served as chief of Staff for two former City Council presidents, Jim Singleton and Dorothy Mae Taylor.
“I am familiar with the City Hall process and how coalitions get things done,” he says.
He got into the race to make sure that “permanent residents are not forced out of their homes by higher taxes and short-term rentals, and that minority businesses have a fair chance at city work,” says Banks, who adds that his entire life is rooted in District B—beginning with his birth at Sara Mayo Hospital and the public schools he attended as a youth to now living, working and attending church in the district.
On the issues that are important to him, Mr. Banks says, “We’re never going to arrest our way out of crime.” He does, however, call for more police patrols and more crime cameras. He would implement diversion programs “so prison is not self-perpetuating.”
Banks would be a diligent watchdog of the Sewerage and Water Board which he says has been operating in private for too long, isolated and protected from the people it serves.
On economic development, he would, “monitor the DBE 35 percent participation (goal) and assure that subcontractors are also DBE when such services can be found locally, and that all parties perform a fair share of the work.” He would encourage new businesses to build, expand and create living wage jobs for local workers. He would see that “dead zones” have services, shopping, and public transportation.