Mira Mesa is the largest neighborhood in San Diego, California, and is the the northernmost “real community” of San Diego, the area’s long history of military ties and influence, Mira Mesa was separated from the rest of the city by NAS Miramar for many years. Despite a housing boom and an influx of new residents in the late 1960s, Mira Mesa wouldn’t find its footing until the 1990s, mainly due to the area’s unplanned growth and influx of residents.
Around the 1940s, Mira Mesa was used as a testing area for the United States Army. Later, the neighboring Hourglass Field—a piece of asphalt in the shape of an hourglass—would be used by the San Diego Region Sports Car Club of America to stage races. For three years, Hourglass Field was home to the regional road racing circuit, motorcycle racing, and drag racing. The drag racing was unauthorized, and after three bystanders were injured during one of these unauthorized races, the Navy shut down Hourglass Field, which resulted in what would come to be called the Drag Strip Riot. Eventually, the Navy made the field unusable for racing by cutting trenches across the runways.
Hourglass Field would see many more uses yet. By the late 1960s, it would become home to Miramar College, as a training facility for San Diego police and firefighting personnel, the 1980s would bring thermal soaring gliders to the field, and most recently, is home to part of the Mira Mesa community. Mira Mesa tutors are as multifaceted as Hourglass Field and can help students succeed in the classroom.
A housing boom in 1969 across 10,000 acres of land led to the area being built so quickly that it lacked basic community needs like schools, shopping centers, and other services for its new, large residential population. The unplanned growth caused many issues, but it regained its footing eventually. By the late 1990s, Mira Mesa underwent expansion to accommodate the influx of new residents attracted to the area’s biotech firms and pharmaceutical companies, MCAS Miramar, Qualcomm, and UC San Diego. Mira Mesa provides a great quality of life for its citizens with shopping and recreational opportunities—teen and senior centers, ice arena, aquatic complex, twelve parks, and an ultramodern movie theater. Mira Mesa has an interesting and military-centered history, and despite it’s ups and downs, it has established itself as one of the best neighborhoods of San Diego. Mira Mesa tutors can do the same for students’ progress in the classroom.