I don't dispute the general anti-big-city bias, but [a] I don't think it has *anything* to do with the placement of state capitals -- that's far more a function of each state's particular politics at work, especially the desire to minimize RMS travel time to the capital in the age of horses; and [b] until the 20th century (and maybe not until after WW2) small towns, *not* suburbs, seem to have been more the norm.

Public Housing is put on cheap land. In the US, this was in the center cities near the urban core.

Only after the secretly (or not so secretly) racist Urban Renewal programs took hold.