Allison: Many of us remember Multi-Craft Plastics. Not a bad place to go for your off-the-wall custom plastic needs. Whether you intended this or not, your appreciation for the fact that this place has history- even under the latest facelift has not gone unnoticed. Thank you.

Seems to me I heard that building was a jazz club when Williams and Vancouver were the thriving center of African American culture here. Jazz was the hot pop of rebellion in the day. That vibe was destroyed by building I-5 right through the middle of it. Feature story?

There's a bit about that on the Leftbank website, under the 'history'section: In 1945, Portland’s premier jazz club, the Dude Ranch defined a neighborhood and an era from its home at 240 N Broadway. In his book Jumptown, Robert Dietsche writes, “There never was and there never will be anything quite like the Dude Ranch. It was the Cotton Club, the Apollo Theater, Las Vegas, and the Wild West rolled into one. It was the shooting star in the history of Portland jazz, a meteor bursting with an array of the best Black and Tan entertainment this town has ever seen.”