HELPING COMMUNITIES THRIVE Innovative partnerships at work in Helena-West Helena.
THRIVE / SARAH MELBY
BY WILL STALEY
The Mississippi River bridge at Helena marks a major entrance and exit to the state.
38 | BLOCK, STREET & BUILDING VOLUME 7 | 2021
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he longer I live in Helena-West Helena, the deeper and more meaningful my relationship to the city becomes. That’s to be expected, as with every relationship, but Helena is certainly not the same place I once knew as a naïve young professional looking for design work 12 years ago. On the surface, everything is the same, save a couple of Historic Cherry Street storefronts that were damaged during the Easter storm of 2020. Underneath the surface, however, you find a unique, colorful constellation of factors that inspires me, the Thrive team and other local placemakers to amplify the masterpiece that is Helena. Helena, as most simply call it, is known to the state as a deep Delta locale — a place on the banks of the Mississippi River where if you close your eyes, you can smell the smoked chicken necks on the corner of Sebastian and Plaza and hear both blues and country flowing from open car windows at the same time. Informed by a painful racial
