Gilroy is like Tijuana. Salinas is like Gilroy.
My wife really loved the Carmel/Monterrey area, and she would have moved there in a NY minute if we could have afforded it.
Friends suggested Gilroy or Salinas to live in and drive over to the coast whenever we liked. So she suggested those areas to live in, when I took early retirement.
A friend, who retired as a CHP warned us about the crime rates in those two cities.
That was 20+ years ago, and the rates are probably worse.
Some friends. I grew up on the peninsula, and there's no way I would ever go to Salinas.