Not the person you're replying to, but my guess is this: "The media," one or two outlets in particular, has been very strenuously playing up the "astounding lawlessness" and "terrible conditions" that are supposedly "ravaging" cities.

Living in one that's been the subject of thousands of minutes of talking-head coverage...this is surprising to me. I have friends who live elsewhere who partake of news from those outlets and they are absolutely convinced that I am living in a doomed hellscape from which there is no relief. No amount of my telling them that I look out my window and my city has not completely burned to the ground disabuses them of this belief. (There is absolutely nowhere in my city that I cannot or do not feel comfortable going.)

A lot of media reports are also linking this with COVID response and implying, though not stating, that the virus is far more rampant inside cities, even though where I live is doing better, per-capita, than any of our suburban neighbors both on case rates and testing throughput.

Receiving this constant drumbeat of "cities are absolutely fucked, here's some stock footage of people breaking windows" is bound to influence poll results.