If the app NextDoor is any indication, going local doesn’t seem to help either, its as negative and fractious as any other online community.
At some point, one gets the feeling “the medium is the message” and it’s a flaw inherent to all online social media.
1) it gets dominated by whoever shouts the loudest/who can spend most time on social media
2) You only get one local community really, and if you aren't in it, you aren't in it. I can join one of thousands of gaming discords, if any of them get too toxic for me I can just join another one. I can't do that with my local community, so you don't have the stick of "if you continue being toxic assholes I'm going to go somewhere else". You can of course stop using it but that's not "taking your business somewhere else".
In my experience, it was generally much worse, not only for the negativity, but the fact that these toxic people lived nearby.