Cities are also the cesspits where the poor gather, drawn in from outlying more rural environments, seduced by the idea that they will do better there.  Some will, many won't.  
They are crowded, noisy, polluted, and require lots of police to keep it secure.  The only way so many people can survive together is to try mostly to ignore each other and cleave unto their little communities of friends and family.

I've always been a big city dweller, so don't get me wrong - I appreciate the many good things about it.  And I'm lucky too that I'm fairly comfortably placed.  

But let's not denigrate the other kind of lifestyle either, by blaming it for 'populism', and God help us, nationalism, which was once a laudable trait and is now referred to almost as the product of a diseased mind.  There's also a lot to be said for the more direct interaction with nature and life, and fewer people, that a more rural environment brings.