Data and Methods

Due to the NYC Local Law 84 [39], the public can get access to the energy use intensity data of the build- ings in NYC [40]. The latest available data are from the year of 2013. To avoid the influence from mixed residential and commercial buildings, only multi-family buildings with 100% residential areas are considered in this study. The percentage of area for different use was collected from the primary land use tax lot output (PLUTO) database provided by the Department of City Planning of NYC.