The Manhattan Squeeze

50 cent's In Da Club is tight, a composition with pace, and no moment to spare. Manhattan is like that. Real estate is measured in $'s per square foot (1000+), life in $'s per min for children's swimming pool (2, no tips), and leisure in $ per min of massage (3, including tips). NY has a certain tightness of geometry. The traditional buildings stand shoulder to shoulder, elbows tucked in, holding their breath and not heaving; once they clear the shoulder line, they squeeze further to form tiered rooftop gardens. There are a few exceptions --- the bulbous Gehry building or the infamously spiral Guggenheim --- trying to elbow out their neighbors, build moat spaces around them and break the squeeze. Me, I like the squeeze.