Investing In and Revising Mexico City's Center Square

The redevelopment effort is being led by billionaire Carlos Slim Helu, who has partnered with city and federal governments, and has gathered private investors to bring more than $500 million to the centro.

"Slim has brought massive scale redevelopment to the area, as well as a spirit of civic pride. His work, executed largely through a charity he funds, the Foundation of the Centro Histórico, has internalized contemporary planning trends into a methodical process of downtown redevelopment. But while it is easy to laud such a comprehensive overhaul of a historically significant, underused area, the breadth of the process and the consolidation of power that has enabled it raises alarms for some civil libertarians, who worry that a quest for profit will lead to the dispossession of multiple constituencies that do not fit into the image of the "new" Centro."