Passage:

In debates about why some cities recover quickly from economic shocks while others stagnate, a popular explanation emphasizes what commentators call entrepreneurial spirit. A historian of urban policy argues that this phrase, though flattering, is analytically thin because it smuggles the outcome into the cause: a city that rebounds is retroactively described as spirited, whereas a city that struggles is labeled complacent. The historian instead traces recovery to the interaction between zoning rules and credit institutions. In the historian's account, neighborhoods that permitted small commercial conversions, accessory units, and incremental density changes did not need spectacular redevelopment plans to absorb new firms and workers; they could accommodate modest growth continuously. By contrast, places that treated land use as a series of exceptional permissions forced each adjustment to become a political drama, thereby making adaptation slower and more conflict-prone. The historian concedes that charismatic founders and local optimism matter at the margin, but concludes that institutional design largely determines whether such traits can be converted into sustained adaptation rather than isolated anecdotes.

Which choice best states the central idea of the passage?