Mira Mesa is a suburban community in the northern part of the city of San Diego with many qualities of a small town. Mira Mesa is San Diego's largest suburb, with over 75,000 residents, stretching from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar on the south to Los Penasquitos Canyon Preserve on the north, and from I-15 on the east to I-805 on the west. When rapid growth in the early 1970s transformed the mesa from rocks and rattlesnakes to tract homes, there were no schools, parks, or other facilities, not even a grocery store. Residents held rallies and marches, and the first schools in Mira Mesa were created inside houses leased from developers. Mira Mesa today is a happily multiethnic community that includes schools, parks, a library, industrial and retail centers, and several supermarkets."