Sweetie, I made the point less to highlight the merits of Ukraine and Mexico, and more to highlight just how far gone California is. Ukraine and Mexico's big cities are a LOT more nicely maintained at the moment.
And their airports.
I have no idea about Mexico although won’t be surprised. Kiev is changing for worse over last 5 years which is to be expected. The streets are falling apart, storm sewers stopped functioning making city into a lake after rain and tap water available for a couple hours a day. Electricity and gas would be a problem soon.