Saturday marked the grand opening of a youth-led bike shop in the Indianapolis neighborhood east of Riverside Park.
Leaders at The Learning Tree, the group that oversees the business, say they want to promote entrepreneurship and teach kids how to handle money.
A partnership with IMPD helped kickstart the shop – Police Chief Bryan Roach agreed to donate dozens of confiscated bikes the department was going to get rid of.
Roach says he wants IMPD to support more projects that give young people something positive to do over the summer.
“You probably won’t find this in a paper, that says ‘Hey, how do you reduce violence in Indianapolis? Well, you start a bike shop with a bunch of kids.’ But that’s exactly what you do,” Roach says.
The shop is housed in a garage and offers bike repairs, tune-ups, and ride along tours of the neighborhood.
