LOS ANGELES — Arriving at what’s left of his shop, Steve Salinas carefully navigated through the rubble. “You just got to step over some tricycles,” he said.

The realization of what he’s lost hits the long-time business owner in waves.

“On occasion, I’ll see something and say, oh, that’s burnt,” he explained. “That’s a lot of what walking around here feels like.”

The store was already called Steve’s Bike Shop when Salinas first got a job here 40 years ago.

“I started when I was 14 and then bought it after I graduated high school,” he said. “It was a dream. And it never went away, so I never left.”

When the Eaton Fire broke out, Salinas spent the night protecting several houses from the flames. He was helping his friend Jim Orlandini, who owns the hardware store next to the bike shop, save his house when they learned that the entire block they worked on was gone.

A week later, paint cans are still on the shelves. Tables sit empty at what was Amara Kitchen. All along Lake Ave, Salinas can look at a charred pile or one remaining brick wall and name the business that once stood there.

That’s what being a small business owner in a community like Altadena is like.

“It’s a very personable thing,” he said. “A lot of times when people come in, they know who I am and I know who they are.”

(Spectrum News/Tara Lynn Wagner)

Maria Salinas — no relation to Steve — is the president and CEO of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. Small businesses make a town a community.

“Every neighborhood has its own main street,” she said.

The organization knew right away that they needed to help the businesses impacted by the fires and, over the course of four days, raised a million dollars to form the Small Business Disaster Recovery Fund. Bank of America donated half a million. 

Ring, which was founded in LA and is now owned by Amazon, gave a quarter of a million, as did Chevron, which has had roots in the city since the late 1800s. 

The Chamber is also in talks with other companies as well to continue to grow the fund. She hopes that by early February, small businesses will be able to apply for grants of up to 10,000 dollars. That’s money that doesn’t need to be repaid.

The Chamber also has a list of resources compiled on their website and their offering one-on-one instruction on how to navigate FEMA and SBA loans. This is a professional service but for Maria it’s also personal. 

She lives in Pasadena and is a devoted patron of many of the businesses that were lost. She wants to see them return and thrive.

“We need to save the small business economy in these communities,” she said of businesses impacted by both the Eton and Palisades fires. “We need to save the dreams of those business owners.”  

In the meantime, Steve Salinas is busy doing what he loves — fixing bikes that people are now donating.

“They always tell me that they need work,” he said, quoting the people who have dropped off dusty bicycles that have sat unused for some time. “And I tell them that’s what I do.”

He plans to use the money collected on a GoFundMe page set up for the shop to purchase the needed supplies to rehab the donated bikes and give them to fire victims… He’s also applied for an SBA loan and will likely apply for the Chamber’s grant.

He said his landlord, who owns the building on East Mariposa, plans to rebuild and is already taking steps toward that goal.

He knows not everyone will reopen, but after 40 years, he has no intention of switching gears.

“Maybe you can teach an old dog new tricks,” he said. “I like being here. I don’t think I’m quite done yet.”

He’s hoping to start a pop-up location for a while so he won’t be spinning his wheels too long.