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Manhattan Group, Llc Business Information, Profile, and History

430 First Avenue North, Suite 500
Minneapolis
Minnesota
55401
U.S.A.

Company Perspectives

Play is discovery and exploration, and joy, and growth, and learning, and so much more. And for us play is serious work. So when we bring play to life, we do it with a commitment to the finest in craftsmanship and creativity. All of our products, from the newest concepts to our time-tested classics, are innovatively designed to inspire imaginative play and delight our consumers large and small. Play is not only fun, it's essential to a child's cognitive, emotional, and social development. Our design process blends science and whimsy to produce toys that offer children a rich array of visual and tactile stimulation and unlimited opportunities for imaginative exploration.

History of Manhattan Group, Llc

Manhattan Group, LLC, which conducts business as Manhattan Toy, is tiny compared to such toy manufacturing giants as Mattel and Hasbro. However, by creating several high-quality stuffed toys sold only in specialty stores, Manhattan Toy steadily increased its sales throughout the 1980s and 1990s. The company's first toys were partially stuffed to give the toy a floppy quality that stood out from toys that were stuffed to full capacity. Manhattan Toy's brands include Whoozit, Manhattan Toy Baby, and Puppets. The company's most successful line, targeted at girls between the ages of 3 and 12, are Groovy Girls stuffed dolls, referred to as "the opposite of Barbie." The dolls are marketed with a line of modest and tasteful outfits that encourage girls to develop their own individual clothing styles. The company also offers a web site for fans of Groovy Girls to socialize online. Other Manhattan toys are targeted at infants, toddlers, and preschoolers of both sexes.

The Early Years, 1978-1986

Before Francis Goldwyn was known as the founder of Manhattan Toy, he was famous as the grandson of Hollywood studio mogul Samuel Goldwyn. Growing up in the Hollywood environment, Francis Goldwyn spent many of his weekends watching movies at his grandfather's Beverly Hills mansion. After a few years of working in the movie industry, Francis Goldwyn became an accountant and left his family's Hollywood legacy for New York. "I like to say I was run out of California because I wasn't mellow enough," Goldwyn said in a February 1990 interview with Nation's Business. He explained, "I was always raised with the attitude that you're a Goldwyn, you've got to do better. I said, as I looked around the country, where is the competition toughest? It was New York. It's very kind of in-your-face competitive here, and I like that." Once he moved to the East Coast, Goldwyn was hired at the accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand (later PricewaterhouseCoopers).

In 1978 Francis Goldwyn ended his Coopers & Lybrand apprenticeship to found the Manhattan Group. Instead of borrowing money from his family, Goldwyn independently approached a New York investor who loaned him the needed seed money. A toy line called Oids was the first of many floppy stuffed toys made by Manhattan Toy. It was also the company's first financial flop. For the first half of the 1980s, Manhattan Toy struggled to stave off bankruptcy. After repeatedly borrowing money from more New York investors, the company finally produced a hit in 1984 with its plush dinosaur (plush being a style of soft fabric made from polyester). The dinosaur's availability was limited to top-end retailers such as Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale's, and F.A.O. Schwarz.

Manhattan Toy's plush dinosaurs eventually bolstered the company's profits after such a grueling beginning. In 1985 Manhattan Toy reportedly generated $200,000 in sales. Goldwyn remained inspired by the budding signs of success and continued making toys. In an interview with Nation's Business, Goldwyn recounted the time he shared an elevator with a father accompanied by his young daughter. After noticing the girl's yellow dinosaur, Goldwyn said, "'Hey, that's some dinosaur. What kind of dinosaur is that?' She said, 'That's a triceratops.' I said, 'You like that, huh?' Her father said, 'It's her favorite toy. She won't let it go.' I said, 'That's really neat to hear. I make those.'"

Rising Sales: 1986-1999

Goldwyn's persistence paid off. Thanks to the toymaker's mainstay plush dinosaur, Manhattan Toy sales reportedly climbed to $5 million in 1986 according to the Wall Street Journal. Much larger companies began to take notice and generate similar plush products, among them Gerber Products Company. In 1987 Goldwyn filed a claim that a new and less expensive stuffed dinosaur made by Gerber infringed upon Manhattan Toy's copyrights. Goldwyn was quoted in a June 15, 1987, edition of Wall Street Journal as saying, "the big companies take the following attitude: 'We have the money. These little companies don't have the resources to fight us.' Unfortunately, they're right. This time, though, the puppy dog they kicked, bites."

One recent addition under Article III of the U.S. Constitution had hedged Manhattan Toy's litigation. In 1982 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit had been established. It imposed a uniform appeal process that leveled the playing field for smaller businesses infringed upon by conglomerates like Gerber. Later that year a federal court banned the dinosaur made by Gerber. Manhattan Toy was also paid for Gerber's profits that resulted from Gerber's imitation dinosaurs. Manhattan Toy's attorney, Norman H. Zivin, said that the payout was in the "six figures" according to a June 15, 1987, edition of Wall Street Journal. In the same publication one Gerber spokesperson said that his company did not "see this settlement as a win for either side." The spokesperson continued, "We don't agree that it's a win for them. It was never established that there was a true copyright infringement and if there was, we were an innocent bystander because the foreign supplier who furnished us with the product said he had the rights to the design."

In the late 1980s Manhattan Toy's sales of plush dinosaurs began declining. The company released other products like its animal-themed hand and finger puppets. Goldwyn wanted all Manhattan Toy products to appeal to both parents and children. He referred to this approach in Nation's Business as making "classic" toys that would outlive other toy fads. The puppets' simple designs allowed children and parents to operate them; typically only the puppets' mouths moved. They were also partially stuffed to give the toys a dangling quality similar to other Manhattan Toy products.

In 1998 Manhattan Toy released a line of stuffed dolls known as Groovy Girls, which would eventually become a huge hit. The dolls were created as wholesome alternatives to such doll brands as Mattel's Barbie and MGA Entertainment's Bratz, both of which more closely resembled supermodels than young girls. Targeting females between 3 and 12 years old, Manhattan Toy sought to encourage girls to discover their unique fashion styles through a variety of outfits, furniture, environments, and vehicles sold as Groovy Girls accessories.

Roger Bildsten, who previously served as a vice-president at Anagram International, Inc., a manufacturer of Mylar balloons and party products, became CEO of Manhattan Toy in 1998. The new executive was a major advocate of Groovy Girls. "America has literally and figuratively embraced the Groovy Girls. Fans of the dolls have actually become the inspiration for additions to the Groovy line," Roger Bildsten proclaimed in a Manhattan Toy press release. "Groovy Girls are a very special brand. You can look forward to some amazing innovation as their world continues to grow," he continued. Under Bildsten's guidance, Manhattan Toy continued creating Groovy Girls dolls with body shapes and ethnicities to reflect the realistic diversity among young American girls.

Brand Expansion, 1999-2004

In 1999 a licensing partnership between Manhattan Toy and Dr. Seuss Enterprises sparked the creation of stuffed Dr. Seuss plush toys and puppets. In anticipation of the 2000 release of the motion picture The Grinch starring Jim Carrey, Manhattan Toy released a selection of Grinch dolls and other toys based on characters from the movie. Similar stuffed toys were released in August 2003 for the November release of The Cat in the Hat starring Mike Myers. Other Dr. Seuss characters such as Fox in Socks, the "mossy, bossy" man-like creature titled Lorax, and the blue elephant Norton materialized as Manhattan Toy stuffed toys. Norton was released as a 52-inch-long Dr. Seuss Sit Upon toy that small children could, as the name implied, sit upon. Other Dr. Seuss toys, including Hug Arounds and puppets, were created to encourage children to physically interact with Dr. Seuss characters as they read about the characters in Dr. Seuss books.

Product launches after 2000 were in excess of 100 products per introduction and across all brands. Besides new additions to Dr. Seuss and Groovy Girls lines, the company released new products under such other brand names as Whoozit, Manhattan Toy Baby, Manhattan Toy Plush, Manhattan Toy Puppets, and Manhattan Toy Dolls.

In 2004 Manhattan Toy launched its Groovy Girls website at www.GroovyGirls.com, allowing girls to create online accounts and create their own digital doll figures. After their digital dolls had been dressed virtually on the Internet, website members could enter virtual rooms and text-chat with other girls around the world. Cyber parties allowed the girls' dolls to dance and have "Slumberrific Sleepovers." The site also allowed girls to create wish lists, from which parents could purchase items. The online chatting was touted as child-friendly, meaning that only prewritten questions and answer combinations accessed from a user-friendly database could be used to communicate. A typical online chat would begin, "What do you usually do on Saturdays?" To which a girl could reply, "Sometimes I go to the movies on Saturday" or any other prewritten response to the question. The structure kept girls safe from online predators. "It's wholesome girl fun," Amy Susman-Stillman, a developmental psychologist at the University of Minnesota and occasional Manhattan Toy consultant, said in a February 3, 2005, edition of the Saint Paul Pioneer Press. She added, "It's not about girls and boys, just girls doing girlfriend things." Manhattan Toy hoped its web site would create an advantage over giants such as Mattel's Barbie and MGA Entertainment's Bratz dolls, whose web sites, Manhattan alleged, offered little in entertainment and served more as online stores.

In 2004 Manhattan entered into a licensing agreement for Groovy Girls with Scholastic Corporation, the children's publisher and media giant. The partnership resulted in a series of Groovy Girls books and magazines that encouraged girls to develop their own personal style and to learn about the power of friendship. The publications were sold through a monthly book club that was launched September 2004. The book club continuity program targeted girls from third to fifth grade. At the time, over 100 different Groovy Girls dolls were available in more than 5,000 specialty retailers worldwide. Manhattan Toy also began licensing the brand to other select companies that could make Groovy Girl doll fashion accessories, sleepwear, jewelry, activity kits, fashion toys, games and puzzles.

In December 2004, Roger Bildsten left Manhattan Toy to become the president of Grand Toys International, Inc. Manhattan Toy filled his position seven months later by hiring Arete Passas, an executive with previous leadership positions at brands such as Oil of Olay, Crayola, Scholastic, Dixie, and Mattel. Passas also served on the Board of the Girl Scout Council of Greater Minneapolis. In early 2005 Manhattan Toy's infant brand, Manhattan Baby, was updated with a series of educational toys including Big Top Sounds, an interactive toy using motion-sensored sounds.

Retail Expansion: 2004 and Beyond

Thanks to a new relationship with the Target Corporation, Manhattan Toy brands were sold by more than 10,000 retailers in 2005, which was double the amount reported by the company in 2004. For the first time in Manhattan Toy's history, a limited selection of its Groovy Girls and Whoozit branded toys appeared inside the large retailer Target Stores, representing a drastic change from its exclusive availability in specialty toy retailers. Some owners of some small retailers reportedly felt betrayed by the new Target relationship. Many had a vested interest in Manhattan Toy after promoting the brand for over two decades. "We worked hard building that brand, and Target's reaping the benefit," Sonya Kalajian, owner of the Toy Shop in Connecticut, said in a September 2005 edition of TDmonthly, a trade publication for toys, hobbies, games, and gifts.

Hugh Kennedy, the vice-president of business development for Manhattan Toy, explained that as Target increased the popularity of Manhattan Toy brands, the sales inside specialty stores would also increase. The price of Groovy Girls dolls was the same in both Target and specialty stores. New Groovy Girls dolls were released to specialty stores six months before they were made available at Target.

In 2005, the Groovy Girls products expanded to include Groovy Girls Minis, a 2.5" miniature version of the larger Groovy Girls doll. The new Minis included a range of accessories. Launched in January 2005, they exploded in popularity in both specialty stores and later in mass channels. Following this brand extension was the April 2006 launch of Groovy Girls PetRAGEOUS!, a line of "funky fashion pets" that were as diverse as their doll counterparts. Capitalizing on the fashionable pet trend going on in the celebrity world, the new stuffed animals and their accessories were a successful addition to the Groovy Girls products.

Manhattan Toy consistently gave back to the community with large product donations throughout the year. Toys for Tots, a charity organization, received more than 100,000 toys between 2004 and 2006. Less than a year after becoming Manhattan Toy's president, Passas oversaw the donation of more than 60,000 Groovy Girls dolls to girls who survived Hurricane Katrina. With the help of the Girl Scout Council of Greater Minneapolis, Groovy Girls were first given to displaced hurricane survivors who relocated to Minnesota. The remaining dolls were distributed throughout the Gulf Coast. The relief effort was also overseen by the non-profit Hope for the City organization.

Principal Competitors

Gund, Inc.; Hasbro, Inc.; Infantino, LLC; Learning Curve International, Inc.; Mattel, Inc.; MGA Entertainment, Inc.; Toy Quest; Ty Inc.

Related information about Manhattan

pop (2000e) 1 537 200; area 72 km族/28 sq mi. An island forming one of the five boroughs of the City of New York, New York State, E USA; at the N end of New York Bay, bounded W by the Hudson R; co-extensive with New York Co; settled by the Dutch as part of New Netherlands in 1626, bought from local Indians for trinkets and cloth worth c.$24; taken by the British in 1664; major financial and commercial centre based around Wall Street and the former World Trade Center (destroyed in terrorist attack on 11 Sep 2001); headquarters of the United Nations; Broadway, Empire State Building, Greenwich Village; six universities - Columbia (1754), New York (1831), City University of New York (1847), Yeshiva (1886), Rockefeller (1901), Pace (1906), and a satellite campus of Fordham at the Lincoln Center; named after a local tribe of Indians.

Manhattan is both the Island of Manhattan and encompasses most of the Borough of Manhattan, one of the five boroughs of New York City.

The borough of Manhattan is coterminous with New York County, which is also the most densely populated county in the United StatesFederal Reserve Bank of New York District Profile: New York City, accessed September 4, 2006. Postal addresses within the borough are typically designated as "New York, NY."

Manhattan has the largest central business district in the United States and is the site of most of the city's corporate headquarters and the New York Stock Exchange. Although its population is third largest in size of the five boroughs, after Brooklyn and Queens, and it is geographically the smallest, Manhattan is the borough that many visitors most closely associate with New York City. The ship was captained by Henry Hudson, who, in the service of the Dutch Republic, was covertly commissioned to seek a Northwest Passage to China. The Half Moon first entered Upper New York Bay on September 11, 1609, and sailing up the lower Hudson River, anchored off the tip of northern Manhattan that night. He thus confirmed that the island had been purchased in 1626 by Peter Minuit, the third director of New Netherland from the native Lenapes for 60 guilders worth of trade goods (translated to about $24, which according to the Oregon State University website's estimated conversion factors, is about the equivalent of $500-$700 American in today's currencyHistorical Inflation Data according Oregon State UniversityObviously, it is the matter of common sense, that it is virtually impossible to make more or less exact comparison of societies, values and price structures dated back to 1626, and 2006. However, these numbers give the feeling of the price, which was paid for Manhattan.

It is generally assumed that the Italian navigator Giovanni da Verrazano explored New York Harbor in 1524 and that a few months later the Portuguese Esteban G坦mez did the same.

The province of New Netherland was settled in 1624 at Governors Island (the birth date of New York State), whereas the town of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island was founded in 1625 (the birth date of New York City) by New Netherland's second director, Willem Verhulst, who, together with his council, had selected Manhattan as the optimal place for permanent settlement. Director General Peter Stuyvesant and his council negotiated 24 articles of provisional transfer which gave New Netherlanders liberties and freedoms unlike those available to New Englanders and Virginians. Thus safeguarded, the notion of tolerance endured after conclusive jurisdictional establishment of English dominion over New Netherland in 1674, and through the formation of the United States of America, when it was reintroduced as a constitutional right under the Bill of Rights in 1791.

New Amsterdam?s significance, therefore, lies in the fact that it gave rise to what would become the most diverse city in the world, and the nation?s largest municipality ? Hence, New York County is named in honor of the Royal Majesty of Great Britain, the Duke of York, later to become the Catholic James II of England after whom the City and State of New York were also named. This ban technically remained in effect until the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

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From January 11, 1785 to Autumn 1788, New York City was the fifth of five capitals under the Articles of Confederation, with the Continental Congress residing at New York City Hall then at Fraunces Tavern. New York was the first capital of the country under the newly enacted Constitution of the United States from March 4, 1789 to August 12, 1790 at Federal HallThe Nine Capitals of the United States. Accessed June 9, 2005. To supply the needs of the growing population, the city acquired land in Westchester County and constructed the Croton Aqueduct sytem, which went into service in 1842. The system took water from a dam at the Croton River, and sent it down through the Bronx, over the Harlem River via the High Bridge, to storage reservoirs in Central Park and at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue, and through a network of cast iron pipes on to consumer's faucets. In the early twentieth century, the existing water supply system was supplemented with much larger reservoirs in the Catskill Mountains, connected to the city by a series of mammoth water tunnelsNew York City's Water Supply System: History, accessed September 5, 2006.

At the time of creation of New York County, its territory consisted of Manhattan Island, and occupied the same area which it occupies today. In 1914, those parts of the then New York County which had been annexed from Westchester County were constituted the new Bronx County, and New York County was reduced again to its present boundaries.

From the latter half of the 1960s through most of the 1970s, Manhattan suffered from urban flight as the middle-class fled to the outer boroughs and suburbs due to an increase in crime. It was thought that the September 11, 2001 attacks would initiate a new exodus from the City due to a fear of terrorism, but this has not occurred.

Geography

Manhattan Island is bound by the Hudson River to the west and the East River to the east. To the north, the Harlem River divides Manhattan from The Bronx and the mainland United States. The borough of Manhattan includes both Manhattan Island and several small islands, including Randall's Island, Ward's Island, and Roosevelt Island to the east and Ellis Island, Liberty Island, and Governors Island to the south in New York Harbor. Marble Hill at one time was part of Manhattan Island, but the Harlem River Ship Canal, dug in 1895 to improve navigation on the Harlem River, separated it from the remainder of ManhattanNew York Times - Streetscapes: Spuyten Duyvil Swing Bridge; Reclamation is most notable in Lower Manhattan with modern developments such as Battery Park City, created from land excavated during the construction of the World Trade Center.

Manhattan is loosely divided into downtown, midtown, and uptown regions, with Fifth Avenue demarcating Manhattan's east and west sides.

Manhattan is connected by bridges and tunnels to New Jersey to the west, and three New York City boroughs: the Bronx to the northeast; Brooklyn and Queens on Long Island to the east and south. Its only direct connection with the fifth New York City borough is the Staten Island Ferry across New York Harbor, which is free of charge. It is possible to travel to Staten Island via Brooklyn, using one of the Brooklyn's bridges, and then the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

A consequence of the strict grid plan of most of Manhattan, and the grid's skew of approximately 28.9 degrees, is a phenomenon sometimes referred to as Manhattanhenge (by analogy with Stonehenge). On separate occasions in late May and early July (for 2006 the exact dates are May 28 and July 12), the sunset is aligned with the street grid lines, with the result that the sun is visible at or near the western horizon from street levelSunset on 34th Street Along the Manhattan Grid, Natural History (magazine) Special Feature ? City of Stars, accessed September 4, 2006. A similar phenomenon occurs with the sunrise in January and December (January 11 and December 2 in 2006).

The Wildlife Conservation Society, which operates the zoos and aquariums in the city, is currently undertaking The Mannahatta Project, a computer simulation to visually reconstruct the ecology and geography of Manhattan when Henry Hudson first sailed by in 1609, and compare it to what we know of the island today.

For economic geography, see the map links to radicalcartography at the bottom of the page.

Neighborhoods

Manhattan's many neighborhoods are not named according to any particular convention. Some are geographical (the Upper East Side), ethnically descriptive (Chinatown), or abbreviations (TriBeCa, which stands for "Triangle Below Canal Street"). Harlem is a name from the Dutch colonial era after Haarlem, a town in the Netherlands.

Some neighborhoods, like SoHo (South of Houston), are commercial in nature and known for upscale shopping. Others, like the Lower East Side and East Village, are associated with Bohemian subculture. Washington Heights is a vibrant neighborhood of immigrants from the Dominican Republic. The Upper West Side is often characterized as a liberal and family-friendly alternative to the Upper East Side, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the United States.

In Manhattan, uptown means north and downtown means south. Manhattan has two central business districts, the Financial District at the southern tip of the island, and the business district in Midtown. The terms uptown and downtown can also refer to the northern part of Manhattan (generally speaking, above 59th Street) and downtown to the southern portion (typically below 23rd Street or 14th Street), respectively.

Fifth Avenue roughly bisects Manhattan Island and acts as the demarcation line for east/west designations (e.g., East 27th Street, West 42nd Street). North of 14th Street nearly all east-west streets use numeric designations, which increase from south to north to 220th Street, the highest numbered street on the island.
For a full list of neighborhoods see "List of Manhattan neighborhoods"

Adjacent Counties

Bronx County, New York - east
Queens County, New York - east
Kings County, New York - south
Bergen County, New Jersey - west
Hudson County, New Jersey - west

Government

Since New York City's consolidation in 1898, Manhattan has been governed by the New York City Charter that provides for a "strong" mayor-council system. In 1989 the Supreme Court of the United States declared the Board of Estimate unconstitutional on the grounds that Brooklyn, the most populous borough, had no greater effective representation on the Board than Staten Island, the least populous borough, a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause pursuant to the high court's 1964 "one man, one vote" decisionCornell Law School Supreme Court Collection: Board of Estimate of City of New York v. Morris, accessed June 12, 2006.

Since 1990 the Borough President has acted as an advocate for the borough at the mayoral agencies, the City Council, the New York state government, and corporations. Manhattan's Borough President is Scott Stringer, elected as a Democrat in 2005.

Each of the city's five counties (coterminous with each borough) has its own criminal court system and District Attorney, the chief public prosecutor who is directly elected by popular vote. font-size: 95%;">

**Presidential elections results**
Year	Reps	Dems
2004	16.7% 107,405	82.1%526,765
2000	14.2% 79,921	79.8%449,300
1996	13.8% 67,839	80.0%394,131
1992	15.9% 84,501	78.2%416,142
1988	22.9% 115,927	76.1%385,675
1984	27.4% 144,281	72.1%379,521
1980	26.2% 115,911	62.4%275,742
1976	25.5% 117,702	73.2%337,438
1972	33.4% 178,515	66.2%354,326
1968	25.6% 135,458	70.0%370,806
1964	19.2% 120,125	80.5%503,848
1960	34.2% 217,271	65.3%414,902

As the host of the United Nations, the borough is home to the world's largest international consular corps, comprising 105 consulates, consulates general and honorary consulatesSociety of Foreign Consuls: About us. It is also the home of New York City Hall, the seat of New York City government housing the Mayor of New York City and the New York City Council. they constitute more than 20% of the electorate only on the Upper East Side and the Financial District. Controversial political issues in Manhattan include development, noise, and the cost of housing.

Manhattan has not voted for a Republican in a national presidential election since 1924. In the 2004 presidential election Democrat John Kerry received 82.1% of the vote in Manhattan and Republican George W. The top zip code, 10021, is on the Upper East Side and generated the most money for the United States presidential election for all presidential candidates, including both Kerry and Bush during the 2004 election.Big Donors Still Rule The Roost, accessed July 18, 2006.

Demographics

fifth largest cityin the United States, after New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston.

The population density was 66,940.1/mi族 (25,849.9/km族), the highest population density of any county in the United States. There were 798,144 housing units in 2000 at an average density of 34,756.7/mi族 (13,421.8/km族).

In 2000 56.4% of people living in Manhattan were White, 27.18% were Hispanicof any race, 17.39% were Black, 14.14% were from other races, 9.40% were Asian, 0.5% were Native American, and 0.07% were Pacific Islander. Other large denominations include Protestants(139,732 adherents) and Muslims(37,078)New York County, New York, Association of religion data archives, accessed September 10, 2006.

Culture

Manhattan has been the scene of many important American cultural movements. In 1912, about 20,000 workers, a quarter of them women, marched on Washington Square Parkto commemorate the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which killed 146 workers on March 25, 1911. Manhattan's vibrant visual art scene in the 1950s and 1960s defined the American pop artmovement, which gave birth to such giants as Jasper Johnsand Roy Lichtenstein. Perhaps no other artist is as associated with the downton pop art movement of the late 1970s as Andy Warhol, who socialized at clubs like Serendipity 3and Studio 54and was shot in the chest in 1968 by the radical feminist Valerie Solanas, founder of the group "Society for Cutting Up Men" (S.C.U.M.) and author of the S.C.U.M. Plays and musicalsare staged in one of the thirty-nine larger professional theatres located in Manhattan, with 500 seats or more, that appeal to the mass audience. A short stroll from Times Square will take you to the Lincoln Center, home to one of the world's most prestigious opera houses, that of the Metropolitan Opera.

Manhattan is also home to some of the most extensive art collections, both contemporary and historical, in the world including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art(MoMA), the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Guggenheim Museum.

The borough has a place in several American idioms. It refers to the rapid pace of life in Manhattan.The term "melting pot" was first popularly coined to describe the densely populated immigrant neighborhoods on the Lower East Sidein Israel Zangwill's play The Melting Pot, which was an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Julietset by Zangwill in New York City in 1908. In 1971, WLIBbecame New York's first black-owned radio station and the crown jewel of Inner City Broadcasting Corporation. WLIB began broadcasts for the African-American community in 1949 and regularly interviewed civil rights leaders like Malcolm Xand aired live broadcasts from conferences of the NAACP. WBAI, with news and information programming, is one of the few socialist radio stations operating in the United States.

The oldest public access channel in the United States is the Manhattan Neighborhood Network, well known for its eclectic local programming that ranges from a jazz hour to discussion of labor issues to foreign language and religious programming. Another notable channel in the borough is NY1, Time Warner Cable's first local news channel, known for its beat coverage of City Hall and state politics that is closely watched by political insiders.

Landmarks

The Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, the theater district around Broadway, New York University, Columbia University, Baruch College, the financial center around Wall Street, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Harlem, the American Museum of Natural History, Chinatown, and Central Parkare all located on this densely populated island.

The city is a leader in energy-efficient "green" office buildings, such as Hearst Towerand the rebuilt 7 World Trade Center.

Central Park is bordered on the north by West 110th Street, on the west by Eighth Avenue, on the south by West 59th Street, and on the east by Fifth Avenue. Along the park's borders, these streets are usually referred to as Central Park North, Central Park West, and Central Park South, respectively. (Fifth Avenue retains its name along the eastern border.) The park was designed by Frederick Law Olmstedand Calvert Vaux. Workers moved nearly 3 million cubic yards of soil and planted more than 270,000 trees and shrubsCentral Park History, accessed September 21, 2006. While nearly 90% of Americans drive to their jobs, public transit is the overwhelmingly dominant form of travel for residents of ManhattanHighlights of the 2001 National Household Travel Survey, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, U.S. Department of Transportation, accessed May 21, 2006. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, more than 75% of Manhattan households do not own a car (car ownership is greater in the other boroughs, but New York City as a whole is the only locality in the United States where more than half of all households do not own a car).

The New York City Subway, the largest subwaysystem in the world by track mileageWorld's Largest Subway Systems, Infoplease, accessed September 4, 2006, is the primary means of travel in the city. A second subway, the Port Authority Trans-Hudson(PATH) system, connects Manhattan to northern New Jersey. There is also The Long Island Rail Road, which connects Manhattan and other New York Cityboroughs to Long Islandand the Metro NorthRail Road which connects Manhattan to Westchester County. A single fare on the bus or subway is $2.00,and PATH costs $1.50 PATH Rapid-Transit System: Fares and QuickCard, accessed September 10, 2006. New York's iconic yellow cabs, which number 12,778 city-wide and must have the requisite medallion authorizing the pick up of street hails, are ubiquitous in the boroughAbout the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission, accessed September 4, 2006. The Roosevelt Island Tramwaywhisks commuters between Roosevelt Islandand Manhattan in less than five minutes. The fare has been free since 1997.

The metro region's commuter rail lines converge at Penn Stationand Grand Central Terminal, on the west and east sides of Midtown Manhattan, respectively. About one in every three users of mass transit in the country and two-thirds of the nation's rail riders live in New York and its suburbsThe MTA Network, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, accessed May 17, 2006. Amtrakprovides inter-city passenger rail service from Penn Station to Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimoreand Upstate New York, New Englandand Montreal, Canada; President Franklin Delano Rooseveltwas the first person to drive through it.

The FDR Driveand Harlem River Driveare two limited-access routes that skirt the East Side of Manhattan along the East River, designed by controversial New York master planner Robert Moses.

Manhattan has three public heliports. US Helicopteroffers regularly-scheduled helicopter service connects the Downtown Manhattan Heliportwith John F. Kennedy International Airportin Queens.

New York has the largest clean-air diesel-hybridand compressed natural gasbus fleet in the country, and some of the first hybrid taxis, most of which operate in Manhattan.Metropolitan Transportation AuthorityDifferent Buses for Different Jobs, retrieved on 2006-07-19

Education

Education in Manhattan is provided by a vast number of public and private institutions. Public schools in the borough are operated by the New York City Department of Education, the largest public school system in the United StatesNew York: Education and Research, accessed September 10, 2006, serving 1.1 million studentsBack to School in a System Being Remade, The New York Times, September 5, 2006.

Some of the best-known New York City public high schools, such as Stuyvesant High School, High School of Fashion Industriesand Hunter College High School, are located in Manhattan. It also hosts a new hybrid school, Bard High School Early College, which serves students from around the city.

Manhattan has various colleges and universities (see List of colleges and universities in New York City). The list includes the famous Columbia Universityof the Ivy Leagueas well as New York University(NYU) and Fordham University. Other schools include Pace Universityand The New School.

The world-renowned City University of New York(CUNY), is the municipal college system of New York City. CUNY senior colleges located in Manhattan include: Baruch College, City College of New York, Hunter College, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and the CUNY Graduate Center(graduate studies and doctoral granting institution).

References

Chronology

Key Dates
1978 Francis Goldwyn establishes Manhattan Group, LLC, a toy manufacturer.
1984 Successful launch of a plush dinosaur takes place.
1986 Sales reach $5 million.
1998 Most successful toy line, Groovy Girls, is introduced.
1999 Manhattan Group partners with Dr. Seuss Enterprises.
2005 Manhattan Toy brands sold in Target stores.

Additional topics

Company HistoryToys & Games

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