Street people

Street people are people who live a public life on the streets of a city. Street people are frequently homeless, sometimes mentally ill, and often have a transient lifestyle. Certain neighborhoods, especially those in neighborhoods near universities, such as Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California, The Ave in Seattle, Washington, or the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, Colorado often host street people. They may also frequent bohemian commercial districts such as Colfax Avenue in Denver. Individual street people may be familiar figures to the entire community.

Examples of well-known street people are José María López Lledín who lived a public life on the streets of Havana during the 1950s, Mr. Butch of Boston, Leslie Cochran of Austin, Juan of Seattle, or Louis Thomas Hardin ("Moondog") who was a street musician, inventor, and later homeless person in the 1940s through to 1970s in New York City.

Contemporary street people in the United States include hippies, some of whom may be beggars who often ask for spare change on the streets; bag ladies who often have all their possessions in a shopping cart which accompanies them. They also may include street performers, and people with chronic mental illness.

The term street people is used somewhat loosely and may be used simply to refer to eccentric people who live in Bohemian neighborhoods. However, the defining characteristic is time spent in the street, wandering the streets for a substantial portion of their day or night. This street presence combined with their distinctive disheveled appearance, result in some individuals becoming familiar to residents of the neighborhood they frequent.

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