private List<City> getCities() {
        final String driver = "com.mysql.jdbc.Driver";
        try {
            Class.forName(driver);
        } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        List<City> cityList = null;
        final String dbPath = "jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/world";
        final String sqlQuery = "SELECT Name, Population FROM city";
        Connection conn = null;
        Statement statement = null;
        ResultSet resultSet = null;
        try {
            conn = DriverManager.getConnection(dbPath, "root", "admin");
            statement = conn.createStatement();
            resultSet = statement.executeQuery(sqlQuery);

            String cityName = null;
            int cityPopulation = 0;
            cityList = new ArrayList<>();
            while (resultSet.next()) {
                cityName = resultSet.getString("Name");
                cityPopulation = resultSet.getInt("Population");
                City city = new City(cityName, cityPopulation);
                cityList.add(city);
            }
        } catch (SQLException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } finally {
            if (conn != null) {
                try {
                    conn.close();
                } catch (SQLException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        }

        return cityList;
    }