> walking back to hotel at night, only about 30% of houses had any lights on.

I wish a data scientist at utilities (water, electricity and gas) providers pick up this line and provide some statistics on this. I wish also that city-services companies (e.g. Electricity/water/parking service provider) can collaborate to provide better and justified policy making.

I did similar studies based on open data to provide insights on road/sidewalk optimization usage, and I still see value in collaboration with policy makers.