If we, as a city, are going to build an ecomonic planning and forecasting model like this I think a very important step is to define a "common economic unit" that we can measure by. We must come to some consensus about the value of things like clean air, healthcare, economic opportunity, and these values must be represented in a way that we can all agree on. Setting the values and terms BEFORE we debate individual projects and ideas might be the only way for us to ever reach consensus. What should this unit be based on? a happiness index? A multiplier of property value and wages- healthcare and social spending cost? What do you think? If we cannot find this common unit we will simply continue to agree to disagree about the values we care most about.