"Made in Oregon" Saga Sounds Its Death Rattle.

In response to the University of Oregon's August proposal, Mayor Sam Adams and the university have officially dissolved their compromise agreement on the Made in Oregon sign.

That decision yesterday means the parking lot under the west end of the Burnside Bridge next to the university's Portland campus is no longer part of the deal, Adams says. (Back in April, Commissioner Randy Leonard had used that lot as leverage to get the university to agree to drop its efforts to put its name on the Made in Oregon sign.)

Adams says now Mercy Corps (which has new headquarters across the street from the university) and UO will share the parking lot and that both groups will pay to use it. Under Leonard's compromise, the parking -- a chief component of the university's public safety strategy -- had been offered to the university for no cost. The 27 spots could generate about $54,000 a year.

The fate of the Made in Oregon sign hangs in the balance. Adams didn't want to comment on that aspect of his Thursday meeting with the university. And we're waiting for a call from the university official who met with the mayor yesterday to tell us what will happen to the sign.

Leonard, for his part, is not upset the deal has been decoupled. "What I cared about was that it not say 'University of Oregon,'" Leonard says. "I had no interest in the parking."