Later this year an estimated $20 million will be spent on Phases 2 and 3 of Mr. Norten’s master plan. About a kilometer, or more than half a mile, of sidewalk along and near the logjam that is Paséo Tabasco will be repaved or constructed to connect the main traffic artery to Villahermosa’s Guacamayos, Rovirosa and Manuel Maestres parks. New energy-saving street lights, bus shelters, benches and gardens will be added in addition to storm water management technology to filter urban runoff and better manage flood waters.

Skeletal concrete eyesores like abandoned buildings and parking decks, many of which are being replaced with subterranean parking complexes, are being ripped down to make way for permanent fruit and vegetable markets and other commercial centers.

“Improvements to these parks and the reinforcement of urban spaces is about celebrating public life,” Mr. Norten said. “The booming oil and gas economy here lost sight of that. We looked for it again by studying major urban traffic corridors around the world, like Paris’s Champs Élysées, to understand and implement the means to encourage pedestrian culture.”

After Musevi and Villahermosa’s improved parks opened last year, the number of robberies and sexual assaults, two of the city’s largest problems, dropped significantly. Incidences of those crimes fell 70 percent in the first quarter of this year, said the city council’s chief administrator, Adriana Del Rio González. Tourism meanwhile is growing, with 515,000 visitors registered last year, up from 485,000 in 2010.

Mexico City’s government is also trying to combat traffic in the capital. In 2007, the local authorities approved a 15-year ‘Green Plan’ for the city. Fernando Greene Castillo, architecture professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said the plan, although not legally binding, was expected to alleviate stress on communities that have experienced decline.

“Over the last five years we’ve seen a number of urban planning proposals win approval in the capital,” Mr. Castillo said. “The Sunday closure to vehicles on three of Mexico City’s major streets in the historic center — Calle Madero, Calle Regina, and Calle Talavera — resulted in positive gains in the revitalization of various economic sectors and physical spaces.”

With nearly 21 million people living in Mexico City’s metropolitan area, and more than 5 million cars passing through the capital daily, it is unclear whether such measures, along with the introduction of a bike sharing program in 2010, and the inauguration of the new 15-mile, or 24-kilometer, metro Line 12 later this year, will make a sizeable dent in the city’s air pollution problem. According to the Global Alliance for EcoMobility, carbon monoxide levels are so high that simply breathing in the city is equivalent to smoking about 40 cigarettes a day.

Still, Mr. Castillo is optimistic: “These are important programs for our country,” he said. “In my opinion, they are making a difference.”