There are towns that have given up maintaining parts of their road networks and are intentionally turning some hard-to-maintain paved roads into gravel roads - "depaving".

https://www.wired.com/2016/07/cash-strapped-towns-un-paving-...

Even my home state (Texas), which isn't in an obvious economic crisis (though its budget situation is arguably a self-made crisis by our crazy legislature), has been doing it for a few years now:

https://www.texastribune.org/2013/08/19/conversion-of-roads-...

But Michigan is the example I remember hearing about the most: http://www.ttnews.com/articles/lacking-proper-funding-mainte...

I live in New Orleans but am not a native. Visiting DC this past fall (although not for the first time, I have been there when I was little), coming out of the Metro station on King St (in Alexandria) was absolutely cause for my jaw to drop.