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My pleasure. City geography is really important and I know nothing about NYC. David Harvey's urban geography is important to read (or listen to) and understand at its core...
What made a difference here was south campus where I still live depends on sound. You hear the noise and go find out.
Now days I use the sound of the traffic chopper. So the whole sound cage of anything going on in Sproul plaza is echoed into the main student neighborhood. It happens that of course the community group (or board), also the student group, and the city council representative all overlap each other. It also happens that the small business owners on Tele share most of the student, and old-fuck-like-me worries. These businesses almost never get trashed: Amoeba Records, La Fiesta, Codie's (when it was still here), Moe's, a couple of pizza places and quick lunch places... It's the Gap and other rip-off national chains who get the damage.
I mean kids are schooled in this shit by age ten but at least by fifteen. I don't think I've ever even seen graffiti on the Berkeley Public Library WPA mural next to a heavily used bus stop.
So I am very cheered by OWS. They understand this unwritten code of yore, even if they don't know it is the code. Don't fuck up your friends. And your deepest friend is public space and the right to know your world and address it.
They are struggling with the expense of sleeping bags. You can sew a sheet, a dense wool blanket, a light metal alumium reflector, and a waterproof tarp as separate items and insert them inside each other into a bivy sack