Sadly that's true at the Times and I'm LOL at your comeback. I live within its circulation area and canceled my subscription in 1988 for that reason. But you can mail in the content of most papers' op-ed pages from anywhere.
Maybe smaller papers, which run op-eds of syndicate writers about national and global subjects. But major urban papers, such as the NYT, Chicago Trib, and LA Times carry quite a bit of major local issue op-ed.
How can Kinsey get a feel for 100,000 illegal aliens at a rally being encouraged by the L.A. Mayor, while sitting in sight of the Space Needle? What opinions of his would be valid about the Rodney King riots to me, who saw the flames and looters first hand? Where does he get off explaining gangs to someone whose next door neighbor has Avenue 43 grafitti on his wall? What does the Orange Crush or the East LA interchange really mean to someone who is on the other side of the U.S?
But, the fact that op-ed content has more to do with events filtered through social dogma than local impact allows people like Kinsley to be interchangable with any other Lib opinion leader. It's not what is happening in the community that's important to these people; it's how it reflects on their pet issues. Thus Columbine becomes "gun control", MS13 becomes "immigration issues", wild fires become "global warming". Each is just an editorial hobbyhorse to push partyline dogma.