Exactly. Just because a guy who's gigantic paycheck depends on hollowing out small towns says small towns should change, doesn't mean that they need to change the way wants them to. After reading (most of) the article it's a little mind blowing. Walmart took the map of a town, made it car-free, and people flocked to it. Towns can take that same model, apply it to down town, and people will love it.

I also love your point that what we're talking about here trades economic efficiency for resilience and local governance. Always pushing for growth is eventually going to hit a wall when either there's no more room to grow and no more good land to grow food on.