Editor,

I would like an immediate stop to the funicular so I never have to hear about it again. For the past six months, every time I talk to my mom it has been funicular this and funicular that. At first, I had no idea what a funicular was but played along, thinking it was a passing dance craze. Upon realizing that it definitely wasn’t passing, I looked it up and remembered that I myself had once ridden a funicular in France. But then I remembered that I had actually just taken the stairs, because I was like “What is that weird outdoor elevator?” This is the basic problem with the Langley funicular too. It’s a solution in search of a problem.

The only real reason I can see for the funicular is that they have the money to do it, but that’s never a good reason to buy something. Coincidentally, I learned this lesson on the same trip to France when my best friend (her name rhymes with Slow-y Lifer) and I decided to go on a Parisian shopping spree because we thought we had a lot of money left over. As soon as we got back to the states, the bank made us aware that we hadn’t actually had any money left over, but the international ATM hadn’t known this. Everyone was mad. The point is, do you really want to spend money you don’t know if you have on an inflatable yellow purse, or would you rather just walk (or drive) one block uphill?

RAMONA EMERSON

Brooklyn, New York