That Nowhere Train project is making a lot of people ill, me included. What you say has a grain of truth. Government entities taking land, so they can sell it off later to "balance" budgets, which are never balanced. Government officials are playing evil games.
Around here (San Mateo county), they're trying to extend a temporary sales tax increase, sold to voters as a "temporary" five year deal to get over a budget problem. It's only temporary, they said. Sure enough, now they want to make it permanent. They say the infrastructure is shot and needs replacement, never mind that they didn't do their jobs and do preventative maintenance that is already in the budget.
Anyway, the sales pitch is that infrastructure like streets and libraries needs fixing, for the good of the people. The fine print is that a Municipal building which houses the police department and a firehouse will be replaced with a new building. That Municipal building used to be a private department store, taken by the city and remodeled. It's perfectly fine and modern inside (I go to it a couple times each week).
Reading the finer print behind the increased tax proposal, is that the locker facilities aren't good enough for women cops and firefighters. The city wants to hire more women to be PC. They want fancy lockers separate from the males. So they want to build an entire new building and tear down the existing perfectly fine building. Government is evil!
temporary taxes is are forever.
Freegards!