thumb|A group of gutter punks in New Orleans, Louisiana, in December 2019

A gutter punk is a homeless or transient individual who displays a variety of specific lifestyle traits and characteristics that often, but not always, are associated with the punk subculture.

Other terms used to describe gutter punks include "travelers", "traveling kids", "traveler kids", or "travel kids"; "punk hobos", "hobo-punks" / "hobo punks", or simply "modern-day hobos"; "street punks", "train hoppers" or "railriders" (in reference to the common gutter punk practice of freighthopping);

Travel

Gutter punks are generally homeless and transient. Many travel by alternative means of transportation such as illegally riding freight trains ("freighthopping") or hitchhiking. Some earn a meager but honest income as "buskers", playing acoustic instruments such as the guitar, banjo, mandolin and ukulele on the sidewalk for tips. Other gutter punks earn income as temporary or migrant workers.

Cities of congregation

Cities where gutter punks may congregate in Canada and the United States include Halifax, Nova Scotia; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Denver, Colorado; Asheville, North Carolina; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Richmond, Virginia; Berkeley, California; the Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco, and the Ocean Beach area of San Diego; Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Surbiton, Greater London; New Orleans, Louisiana; Austin, Texas; Lubbock, Texas; Madison, Wisconsin; Boston, Massachusetts; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Chicago, Illinois; and the East Village, Manhattan and Williamsburg, Brooklyn in New York City.

See also

  • Anarcho-punk
  • Bohemianism
  • Crusties
  • Crust punk
  • Folk punk
  • Feral (subculture)
  • Hobo
  • List of subcultures
  • New Age travellers
  • Punk ideologies
  • Punk subculture
  • Squatting
  • Refusal of work
  • The Decline of Western Civilization Part III – a documentary film about young homeless punks of Los Angeles in the late 1990s

References

Further reading

  • Tearing Down the Streets: Adventures in Urban Anarchy. pp. 46–47.