For decades now, the MCMA’s population growth has shifted to the periphery, following the increased production of housing (both formal and informal) in exurban municipalities in the State of Mexico. These densely populated areas on the outskirts of the MCMA exceeded national population growth by more than three percentage points annually between 2000 and 2012 (OECD, 2015). The State of Mexico now holds some of the most heavily populated municipalities in the MCMA (INEGI, 2010).

These trends make planning difficult and complex. A basic challenge comes from jurisdictional fragmentation. Municipal governments manage urban planning, regulation, and development within their boundaries, but major infrastructure networks and services, and their environmental consequences, do not follow administrative boundaries. Although there have been efforts to increase coordination, mostly around environmental policy, metropolitan-level planning remains weak. According to a report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the economic productivity of the MCMA is lower than it should be for a city of its size, due largely to weak governance amplified by a lack of a metropolitan vision and limited inter-governmental coordination (OECD, 2015).

Overall, the MCMA suffers from poor or even non-existent coordination across the relevant state governments, among state and local governments and across different agencies within the same government levels. The OECD (2015) identifies corruption, mismanagement, and poor law enforcement and compliance as key causes of the MCMA’s metropolitan management problems. This complex political and administrative milieu further complicates transportation and urban planning responsibilities and accountability. In services as diverse as transportation and water-delivery, informal arrangements between government officials and service providers often prevail, leading to competing and inefficient services and lending to a pervasive perception of corruption and extortion in negotiations (OECD, 2015).

Many of the most pressing urban challenges in the MCMA relate to the environment and social justice. Despite improvements in recent decades, air pollution still often exceeds international health standards. Conservation land is shrinking and water resources are becoming critically strained, with water supply becoming scarcer in several heavily populated municipalities and delegaciones, including Ecatepec (OECD, 2015). Public services, including public transit, are generally low quality with a great degree of service quality variation across the metropolis. These problems present serious equity concerns, especially because of the MCMA’s socioeconomic spatial segregation. Richer households tend to locate in the western part of the city, closer to the economic center, while poorer ones populate the periphery, with lower quality housing options and much more limited accessibility to jobs and services (Guerra 2013). Some of these poorer neighborhoods suffer from alarming levels of violence and economic marginalization (OECD, 2015, INEGI, 2017).  Many municipalities in the State of Mexico rank among the most dangerous in the country (INESLE, 2016).