Cities need cash – a lot of it and as soon as possible -- to survive the grim fallout from COVID-19 and to be able to navigate toward recovery. The critical situation that they are facing compels more creative thinking about how best to manage public finances and to unlock new sources of funding. We believe that those able to tap the hidden store of value in their own balance sheets have a better chance to come out of the crisis faster, and more sustainably, than those who cannot. Generating value from the government balance sheet is a proven alternative, but one that requires considerable political will. It is an alternative fit for a crisis, when the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable.