Various posts above make me think of the way I judge cities far & wide...I find myself often judging them based on their weather. So if a city like Detroit, Boston, St Louis, etc, had a climate closer to that of coastal LA, I'd see them very differently. Even cities like Houston/dallas or Miami bch, etc, are affected by the same thing too.
However, Tijuana, several miles south of San diego, & Marseilles, the 2nd largest city in france, are known as having easygoing weather. But I don't necessarily have more positive opinions of them based on that. Mexico City also has somewhat friendly weather, but I'd prefer the UK's capital, london, to Mexico's capital. So a variety of factors come into play when judging or ranking a place or city.
this is a sunny ghetto for the rich, & monaco generally isn't a major metro area. So it's a bit of LA's westside, but without the gritty, very real urban area, around it.
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Marseille is larger (1.6 million compared with around 40,000 for Monaco), an urban scene with grit & crime. It's over 130 miles to the west of Marseille (San diego is around 111 miles from LA), & although Monaco technically isn't in the same country, it has a look & feel similar to the sunnier parts of southern france...
"We really enjoy the graffiti in contrast to the older bldgs...."
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this to me is a blend of a monaco & a marseille....
https://youtu.be/2zS-lUu0SkM?t=111