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Gutter Punks: On the Streets With Portland’s Lost Tribe Meet the latest outlaw nation to hit the streets of Portland. Call them road warriors, crusties or squatters just don’t call them hippies. Gutter punks, 1996. (Charles Gullung)
This story originally ran in the Sept. 11, 1996 issue of Willamette Week. If you’ve spent any time in downtown Portland this past summer, you’ve probably noticed a new band of vagabonds on the streets. They’re homeless, but they’re not exactly street kids. They’re wanderers, but they’re not exactly hippies. They’re not skaters, streetwalkers, drug dealers, gang-bangers, bag ladies, drunks, tramps or any of the other exotic species who have hollowed out a niche in the shady parts of town.