Absolutely and they have never stopped. They just hide behind various "causes" and laws or claim they are creating "low income housing"... Right next to one of the most expensive parts of a city, increasing population density 100x or more while insuring that the type of people moving in are guaranteed to lower values. Eventually, after they own almost everything, they get laws changed to make high occupancy housing illegal or to remove it. Use public funds to buy it up because of "blight" then public funds to remove the now un-usable buildings.. After which, they then get the government to sell the very cheap land to a developer (that family or friends own) under the pretense of "redeveloping" the area and increasing property values. Rinse and repeat every few decades.