Desperate need for birth control

[Sleepy]

High influence govenors are very effective at maintaining control of a big city (40% max to PO plus possible law bonus as well) this generally means senate officials. If you are rich, 50K+ in the bank then its possible that your goveners have gained too many bad vices to be worth it. Remove them from the city if so.

To get 10% growth have you got advanced farms and public health buildings? If so destroy the public health buildings, it may trigger the next rebellion for cities on the cusp but afterwards the growth will be slower. And (allthough I've not tested this) it seems to me that cities that grow slower dont have as big a PO problem as fast growth cities.

Is some of your population growth from slaves? If so change your military tactics.

Another tactic is to deliberately infect your problem cities with the plague. Just remove govenors/agents before. Its cheaper than having an extermination army nearby. Plus you dont lose the revenue or gain a repair bill.

Capital relocation may help with distance/corruption penalties. As there is no cost to moving your capital and you can do it as often as you like in a turn its an easy experiment to conduct