Smallest Major City in the World (tax, live, airports)
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I think there's a decent argument for it due to a few reasons when all of it is taken into consideration.
It has a lot of name recognition and tourism as a city which isn't by itself a lot.
It has a very well-known neighborhood with Monte Carlo which itself has lots of name recognition.
It's host to some very well known events with the most notable being the Monaco Grand Prix which puts the Monaco front and center.
It has its own football team that plays in the French majors and it is actually based in Monaco with its name being AS Monaco FC rather than a reference to the region or to Nice. Football is by far the most popular sport of the region.
It has its own economy underpinnings and industries that are not highly dependent on Nice with some of them having fairly little interaction with Nice and Nice's metropolitan area such as its financial *cough* services industry.
Its host to some international organizations.
As a city-state, the city essentially has voting rights among other things on the country tier. For example, Monaco has voting rights in the UN which is crazy, but does give Monaco a bit more political power than your average city as that power of the state is indistinguishable from its powers as a city.
Monaco may be small in size and total population, but it is densely developed and feels very much like a city in and of itself with multiple distinct quarters and its own central business district of sorts. It definitely feels like more of a city than Reykjavik. It's also so much its own center that I doubt there's much daily commuting from Monaco to Nice though there are shared suburbs of sorts and there are people who commute from Nice to Monaco as Nice could be nice enough as a city and isn't as ridiculously expensive as Monaco.
Some things that might disqualify it as you've point out are its size and Nice being close by as well as using Nice's airport rather than its own.
All really valid points. I don't disagree with much. I guess it just comes down to where put the weight in your argument.
Feel between Monaco and Reykjavik is tough to compare because they're so different. I've only spent about 6 hours in Monaco (side trip from Nice - the Grand Prix is on my bucket list), but I've spent a few days in Reykjavik. Monaco is denser and it certainly feels that way. And since there's a seamless transition between Monaco and some of the French suburbs (which are very urban right around the "border"), it feels far larger than the 38k population would indicate.
But to me, Monaco feels more like a leisure destination than a complete city. It's primarily an entertainment hub surrounding a big recreational harbor and it feels that way. It has more in common with other Mediterranean leisure hubs like Ibiza Town or Cannes than it does small "major" cities like Reykjavik, or Geneva which are more complete cities.
All really valid points. I don't disagree with much. I guess it just comes down to where put the weight in your argument.
Feel between Monaco and Reykjavik is tough to compare because they're so different. I've only spent about 6 hours in Monaco (side trip from Nice - the Grand Prix is on my bucket list), but I've spent a few days in Reykjavik. Monaco is denser and it certainly feels that way. And since there's a seamless transition between Monaco and some of the French suburbs (which are very urban right around the "border"), it feels far larger than the 38k population would indicate.
But to me, Monaco feels more like a leisure destination than a complete city. It's primarily an entertainment hub surrounding a big recreational harbor and it feels that way. It has more in common with other Mediterranean leisure hubs like Ibiza Town or Cannes than it does small "major" cities like Reykjavik, or Geneva which are more complete cities.
Yea, I can go either way on this. I think Monaco is a good, but contentious pick and Reykjavik is a good, non-contentious pick. Monaco does do a lot of tourism dollars, but a lot of its wealth is actually from financial services of sorts because of its city-state status. Tourism proceeds are actually a minority of Monaco's GDP with banking and insurance both supposedly being larger industries though I'm guessing it probably takes up a lot more of the labor force.
Theirs's no way Monaco to me qualifies. Monaco is less than 10 km from the edge of Nice, and the sprawl makes that distance easily 5 km. Eze legitimately touches Nice and is within 1-2 km as the bird flies from Monaco. Monaco doesn't even has it's own airport it uses, Nice. IT's essentially the Macao of Guangzhou/Pearl River Delta, the Palo Alto of San Francisco/Bay Area. Except it's much closer. Theirs's no way you could argue Cannes is a suburb and not include Monaco. Now Monaco is a secondary node within the greater Nice area, people aren't commuting necessarily like in Palo Alto or Macao, but if you have to go to Nice just to go to an international airport it's not a major city.
Reyjavik is the same it's airport only has 400,000 yearly passengers.
It's not a major city, it's a capital. Gaborone Botswana sees 700,000 passengers and it's twice the size, I wouldn't qualify it as a major city, either. Iceland's GDP is 25 billion, Botswana's 18 billion. I just think comparing it to a similar sized place shows it doesn't meet any of the requirements that would classify it as major.
Geneva is definitely the lowest you can go.
Last edited by NigerianNightmare; 09-24-2020 at 10:00 AM..
San Francisco is 47 square miles, has under a million people, and feels small, as it is a peninsula between the ocean and the bay, clearly bordered on three sides.
San Francisco is 47 square miles, has under a million people, and feels small, as it is a peninsula between the ocean and the bay, clearly bordered on three sides.
A midget of a major city.
It's by metro area. If we were talking city sizes I'm sure Manila would take the cake.
1.8 million people and 16 square miles.
The issue with going that direction is that you get places like Toshima or City of London. Since they have their own governments you could argue that Toshima and City of London are separate cities from Tokyo and London respectively and major cities in their own right.
Monaco is twice more active than Nice and Nice is already a living city.
Peole come to work in Monaco from Nice not the opposit...
The number of rich and famous people living there is incredible compare to the syze.
Just in sport, it's crazy how many event and teams the city has.
How many cities host a formula 1 competition? The monaco grand prix is one of the most prestigious race in the world...
It's an independant country and play a significant role internationaly compare to his syze.
Being a capitar does have quite a lot of importance. There are 18 cities in Russia bigger than Washington. How many are as important?
Being a capital of a relevent country has a lot of importance. Capital of America = important. Capital of a country barely anyone's heard of = wtf cares?
Monaco is twice more active than Nice and Nice is already a living city.
Peole come to work in Monaco from Nice not the opposit...
The number of rich and famous people living there is incredible compare to the syze.
Just in sport, it's crazy how many event and teams the city has.
How many cities host a formula 1 competition? The monaco grand prix is one of the most prestigious race in the world...
It's an independant country and play a significant role internationaly compare to his syze.
It's a principality of France that theoretically will revert to France if they are ever without a descendant male leader (prince).
It's a principality of France that theoretically will revert to France if they are ever without a descendant male leader (prince).
A principality of France?
What does this term mean?
Some time ago, France has indeed some control on the princapility and many ministre of monaco were french. They forbid a german to became prince of monaco.
I don't think that's still a thing nowaday.
And the two country are legally different and independant, and recognyze by the United nations as so.
Due to the syze of Monaco and that the only field border is with France, the relation is particular.
France has a treaty to protect Monaco independance. As many other places in the world have with big neighboor country.
I heard about it that without descendant male, monaco will became french again but I never find a legit source who quote the law.
I bbeleive it's probably an old law
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