Peak HN to link an article about "spurious correlations" (and not even replying with a well thought out point yourself, just the article link) in response to a claim that slowing down is associated with aging and diminished capacity.
Genuine question, how is giving even more (hyper)local control gonna solve it? This is the exact breeding ground for NIMBYism and the like. The author doesn't really present an argument in favor of that, just sort of drops it as an assertion in the end with a CYA "but yea maybe I'm wrong".