Moody Street in downtown Waltham, just 30 minutes west of Boston by car, has long drawn people from around the region looking for something different. Lined with restaurants featuring ethnic cuisines from around the world, it offers something for just about everyone, whether you want a spicy Indian curry dish or a relaxed sports bar to grab a beer.
Waltham has picked up a reputation as a "Little Kampala" because a large number of Ugandans have moved to the city in recent years. Their culture of entrepreneurship radiates through with Karibu, a Ugandan restaurant serving various stews and kachori, which are spicy potato balls mixed with fresh lemon and deep-fried. A hair salon, Sisters, also caters to the community.
Does Massachusetts need an official rock 'n roll tune? State Sen. Robert L. Hedlund (R-Weymouth) thinks so. He wants it to be "Roadrunner," by Natick native Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers. And so do thousands of other people, judging from the likes of a Facebook page set up to back the effort, which began, in the legislature at least, with Marty Walsh, now Boston's mayor.
Walsh proposed enshrining Roadrunner in 2013 while still a state representative from Dorchester, at the urging of publicist Joyce Linehan. The bill failed to come to a vote before the legislative session ended, but not before generating plenty of attention in the media. Now there's a new version of the bill and it will have an official hearing before the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight on Tuesday afternoon in the State House.
