Though most people would be hard pressed to say they want their neighborhood streets to be sticky, that's one attribute a group of community activists would like to bring to Columbus Avenue. A street is "sticky" if visitors come for one purpose, but get drawn in and stay to lunch, shop, browse in a bookstore or sit in the sun, according to the Columbus Avenue Business Improvement District (BID). A neighborhood can increase "stickiness" by increasing elements that entice people tohang out and explore what the area has to offer. On Sept. 10, urban planners, architects, local residents, elected officials and Columbus Avenue business owners spent the evening brainstorming what elements could make the area more enticing to visitors. In addition to stickiness, the group said they'd like the corridor to be greener and cleaner, too. The meeting was facilitated by the Project for Public Spaces, a non-profit urban planning group that helps communities all over the world to make city spaces as environmentally-friendly and as pleasant as possible for visitors and residents of all ages. Phil Myrick, the group's vice president, presented the results of the group's survey of more than 300 Columbus Avenue visitors, residents and business owners at the Polynesian Room of the American Museum of Natural History, Hall of Pacific Peoples. The survey found that that people were generally happy with how the street is managed, but that it is lacking "sticky" amenities, such as bicycle racks and places to sit."I think that there's a changing of ages and interest in the Upper West Side that we're having," said Nancy Newhouse, a psychotherapist who lives at 79th Street and Columbus Avenue. "The baby boomers are 59 years old and we like to sit in the sun. I don't see why we wouldn't have more seating, because it might make people sit down and smell the roses." Only four percent of the people surveyed said that they came from outside the borough, a statistic several business owners present at the session said did not reflect their experiences in the area. The group took it to mean that the Columbus Avenue area is not taking full advantage of spillover visitors from the American Museum of Natural History, one of New York's top attractions."It's a delicate balance. If you make it too sticky you don't want it to become too touristy," said Chris Cohen, a television producer and seven-year resident of the area. Cohen felt the forum had not addressed how to make the area "more of a neighborhood without making it a mall." Still, he felt that area businesses were squandering the opportunity to capitalize on business from the museum. During the session, participants were challenged to come up with innovative ways to improve Columbus Avenue. The group included Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal, Council Member Gale Brewer, several local community board members and representatives from Transportation Alternatives, a New York City-based non-profit that works to improve public transportation and conditions for bicyclists and pedestrians.Several participants suggested utilizing the stretch of sidewalk running from West 77th to West 81st streets at the back of the American Museum of Natural History to attract visitors. Ideas ranged from putting up dinosaur sculptures for kids to climb on to including a green market in the space. Another popular suggestion was to create "bump-outs," which involve extending the sidewalk onto the street to create a plaza-like effect. Residents and business owners alike said they want to see the chain-link fence outside Intermediate School 44 on West 77th Street replaced, because they consider it an eyesore. But Brewer, who represents the neighborhood, said more funding would be needed to replace the fence. She said that the $500,000 earmarked by the Council to renovate the school yard will not cover the costs. Thor Snilsberg, an urban planner at Project for Public Spaces, stressed that renovations like the fence upgrade are imperative for a neighborhood's growth, and that this is an opportune time to implement such improvements. "We have a little period of change in the city," he said, pointing to Mayor Michael Bloomberg's sustainable city initiative, called PlaNYC. "We want to make sure that the Upper West Side maintains its position and strong leadership," he continued, "and we want to propose some ideas that [the BID] would be the first to pilot."Brewer agreed that the time is ripe for such changes on the Upper West Side. "In the past, things like bike lanes were not a priority," she said. "Everything was about cars." But PlaNYC has created an opportunity to work with the Department of Transportation and the Mayor, she explained. The Columbus Avenue brainstorming session fits nicely with a study that the Department of Transportation plans to conduct. The department will survey traffic patterns on the West Side from West 55th to 86th streets, looking at pedestrian safety, traffic congestion, buses, bike lanes and anything that may make the area more livable and keep traffic moving. Traffic, according to Brewer, is a main concern to the West Side community, particularly residents and business along Columbus Avenue. The next step will be for Project for Public Spaces to generate a report from the brainstorming session. It will include the results of the survey, suggestions from the workshop and renderings of possible improvements to Columbus Avenue. According to the BID's executive director, Barbara Adler, once the report is generated, it can be used to raise funds for the projects dreamed up during the brainstorming session. Idea generation can move a community toward real solutions, said the project's urban planner, Snilsberg. "Neighborhoods have to learn how to ask for things," he said, stating that elected officials have an easier time implementing the community's needs when ideas come directly from residents and local groups. "A lot of what we do in these kinds of workshops is help people clearly describe what they want." Those interested in filling out the Project For Public Spaces survey of Columbus Avenue can do so at the Community Board 7 Web Site, www.cb7.org. Community residents are also invited to a public listening session to kick off the Department of Transportation's traffic survey of the Upper West Side on Monday, Sept. 24 at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 899 Tenth Avenue.