Having decided to install a number of public toilet booths on city sidewalks as a sanitary measure, New York City officials decided to also placed larger booths that are accessible with magnetic keys supplied to people in wheelchairs. But before long, members of the disabled community became upset with this arrangement, saying that it was just another example of the "separate but equal" mentality. One spokesman commented, "We feel we've gotten facility changes but not attitudinal changes... We're asking for basic civil rights in the '90s that most people got in the '60s."

Despite the criticism, there was widespread praise for the toilets: they were inexpensive and they did not become defaced by graffiti or become otherwise unmanageable. However, the toilets were pulled from the streets because in order to make them permanent, the city needed to get a legislative waiver from the state, to take public bids for the toilets and undergo a public site selection process, and then have the city art commission approve the "design" of the toilets. The earliest the toilets could have been installed was two years hence, so the city decided to abandon the idea.

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