Some signs for businesses can be as subtle as Godzilla — big, gaudy, flashing, even festooned with balloons. The fewer of those, the better.

What doesn’t trouble us are those A-shaped sandwich board signs, often in front of businesses in downtown Bend. But in Bend, those come with an odd city-enforced inequity.

If you are a business downtown, go ahead and put up one of those sandwich board signs in front of your business to attract interest and customers. If you are a business downtown, you can have that sign up year-round. Every day. No limit.

If you have a business that is not downtown, nope. Yes, you can put up a sandwich board sign. The city limits it to no more than 90 days in a calendar year.

That’s not fair. Deficiencies in city rules can happen. They need to be fixed.

The Bend City Council discussed what to do about sandwichboard signs on Wednesday. City staff offered up some ideas. Basically, the city could allow elsewhere what is allowed downtown. But there were also suggestions that maybe there should be limits about distance from the business, allowing only in certain zones and some fees. Councilors, instead, directed staff toward flexibility, not the zone of the persnickety.

We’d like to see the same standards everywhere that exist in downtown and minimal fuss. What do you think? You can tell councilors by emailing them at council@bendoregon.gov.