But in December, the city of Sunnyvale began a program to better enforce the city's signs ordinance, and suddenly Gartner's advertisement was out of compliance with the municipal code.

John Pilger, communications officer for Sunnyvale, says the city was just enforcing a code that exists for the good of the community. But Gartner feels she was harassed and hindered in her attempt to preserve part of the charm of Sunnyvale's small downtown.

In March, she received two tickets--one each week for two weeks while she was gone on vacation--for $50 and $150.

Pilger said the tickets were part of the city's new efforts to be more active with code enforcement. Since December, 411 businesses have been contacted about their signage, but only 22 citations have been issues.

"In the vast majority of cases, once we talked to the business owners and educated them, the problem was corrected," Pilger said. "It's never our goal to go out and ticket people; our goal is to educate them."

But Gartner says the ordinance is actually hurting Sunnyvale's downtown by putting unnecessary restrictions on how the businesses on S. Murphy Avenue advertise. For years, her banner hung outside her door with no complaints from visitors or the city.

"They were nowhere to be seen for years, and now they show up every week," she said. "It feels like harassment. No one's complaining about the sign, and its not in anyone's way. It's weighted down, it's not flapping in the wind."

Beyond that, Gartner said the downtown merchants are in an especially tight spot because there are few signs to let people know they are there.

"The city hasn't done its job in providing signage, so we're doing all we can to get people down here," she said. "The individual store owners are left to their own devices."

She is even more nervous about the coming months because demolition has now begun on the Town Center Mall property that sits next to Sunnyvale's established downtown.

"If they don't get complaints, why are they going out of their way to harass us? We're trying to survive and keep the downtown alive," she said.

Sunnyvale municipal code section 19.44 prohibits banners being used by businesses unless they obtain a 30-day temporary permit. Owners can only get such permits twice a year. According to city records, Gartner got permits for her sign on May 2 and June 14. In both cases, the sign was still there after the permit expired.

After her first two tickets, she asked the city to leave her alone because she felt she was being singled out. She was ticketed again for $200 and told that the next one would be for $500

"All these things would go away if she would just take the banner down," Pilger said. "When people violate the sign code, it makes the city look junky and unattractive."

Gartner said she takes issue with the ordinance being based on aesthetics because she feels her sign is aesthetically pleasing, and has never heard complaints about it. Instead of a blanket ordinance, she said a case-by-case examination of signs in Sunnyvale would yield better results for the city and its businesses.

To avoid further tickets from the city, Gartner paid $200 to have a small, simple sign put over her entrance on Aug. 3. The sign is much smaller and less visible than the banner, but she said she is glad to have the city off her back.