That reminds me of three cities I used to frequent. You could predict their economic and political situation based on the way desire paths were being handled.

• Place 1: poor, left-wing. Nothing, the desire paths were left alone.
• Place 2: rich, left-wing. Desire paths were nicely paved over.
• Place 3: rich, right-wing. They placed big branches on a desire path to block it. After people started climbing over them, they fell a tree on it.