There is no good model for this, but innovations are available across every aspect of urban life to help if we are bold enough to use them.

For example, housing affordability is a clear area of weakness that must become a strength. That will be even truer after the coronavirus crisis, as more and more residents lose their jobs and can’t pay rent. A big part of why housing is so expensive is that buildings are so costly to construct.

Today we have the technology to significantly lower construction costs, as part of a holistic affordability plan. It’s now possible to make tall buildings out of wood and produce core building components in factories. There are large cost and speed advantages to this approach that can be shared between developers and tenants, or captured by cities for their own affordable housing programs.

There are also significant climate benefits to wood buildings, which could be an important element in an aggressive sustainability agenda. Such a strategy includes green policies and energy regulations, but we must also explore new private-sector clean technology solutions that can help the city achieve its climate goals.

Critically, going green must remain affordable. Solar panels and batteries can help store clean power, and advanced building energy systems can help deploy these sources during peak periods, when electricity use is both more carbon-intensive and expensive. Clean “thermal” grids can make a neighborhood less reliant on fossil fuels and help buildings share clean energy, further reducing costs.

Start the planning now

More important right now than the specific innovations is that we immediately begin a civic conversation that rapidly yields a strategy. The effort to develop PlaNYC, New York’s pathbreaking sustainability plan from 2007, could serve as a model. The Bloomberg administration and the City Council created a task force to develop the plan. At every step along the way, the public was involved.

We could adapt that approach to today’s crisis. It should be done by a consortium of local nonprofits, civic institutions, labor and business leaders, and presented to the new mayor and Council after the election in the fall of 2021. As with PlaNYC, the idea would be to identify actionable initiatives, with clear mandates and accountability, that can be achieved through innovative technological, regulatory, planning or financial approaches.

None of this will be easy. Bold civic action never is. But the thing that has always made New York unique is that it is a city of immigrants who have believed that life here was going to be better for themselves and their families. It is that collective optimism and resourcefulness that has enabled New York to overcome many crises. It isn’t too early to use this pandemic as a catalyst toward a more inclusive, sustainable and resilient future.

Daniel L. Doctoroff, chief executive of Sidewalk Labs, Alphabet’s urban innovation company, was a deputy mayor of New York from 2002 to 2008.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.