According to Kikar, Moshe Li-On, Mayor of Jerusalem, has decided to remove all 360 remaining public pay phones from the streets of Jerusalem.

According to Li-On, these have become an eyesore and an unnecessary obstacle in the streets and this is part of the plan of beautifying Jerusalem. He calls it the end of an era.

I do not know why it needs a special and separate decision by the mayor of Jerusalem if the Ministry of Communications has already made this decision, but so be it. If he feels good announcing it as his decision, good for him.

At the end of the article Kikar adds that these phones are not just unnecessary and ugly but also dangerous. Kikar says people call the phones looking to entrap curious and naive Haredi children who answer them in the streets and then get ensnared by these people (though it does not say what these callers do to these children). It calls the phones a spiritual hazard for the souls of the children.

While this may be true, let's not forget that the phones became unnecessary (and eventually perhaps a danger for kids) only because mobile phones became so popular and so entrenched in society. Removing the few remaining pay phones does not seem like such a great salvation compared to the fact that they were replaced with cellphones that most in that community consider to be a much greater spiritual hazard...