We reexamine the systematic properties of local galaxy populations, using published surveys of star formation, structure and gas content. After recalibrating star formation measures, we are able to reliably measure specific star formation rates well below that of the so-called "main sequence" of star formation vs mass. We find an unexpectedly large population of galaxies with star formation rates intermediate between vigorously star-forming main sequence galaxies and passive galaxies, and with gas content disproportionately high for their star formation rates. Several lines of evidence suggest that these quiescent galaxies form a distinct population rather than a low star formation tail of the main sequence. We demonstrate that a tight main sequence, evolving with epoch as it is observed to do, is a natural outcome of most histories of star formation and has little astrophysical significance, but that the quiescent population requires additional astrophysics to explain its properties. Using a simple model for disk evolution based on the observed dependence of star formation on gas content in local galaxies, and assuming simple histories of cold gas inflow, we show that the evolution of galaxies away from the main sequence can be attributed to the depletion of gas due to star formation after a cutoff of gas inflow. The quiescent population is composed of galaxies in which the density of disk gas has fallen below a threshold for disk stability. The evolution of galaxies beyond the quiescent state to gas exhaustion and a complete end of star formation requires another process, probably wind-driven mass loss. The SSFR distribution of the quiescent and passive galaxies implies that the timescale of this process must be long, greater than a few Gyr, but less than a few tens of Gyrs. The environmental dependence of the three galaxy populations is consistent with recent numerical modeling which indicates that cold gas inflows into galaxies are truncated at earlier epochs in denser environments.