Acorn, Oakland, California facts for kids

Acorn or Acorn Projects refers to a group of homes in the Acorn neighborhood of West Oakland. This area is part of a larger plan called the Acorn Redevelopment Project. People sometimes call it "The Corns" or the "Cornfields."

Acorn is surrounded by different types of public housing. To the south, you'll find the tall City Towers Apartments and the shorter Mohr Apartments. To the west is Cypress Village. Market Street borders it to the east, and 10th Street to the north.

What are the Acorn Projects?

The Acorn housing area originally had three main parts: Acorn 1, Acorn 2, and Acorn 3. In the late 1990s, the City of Oakland Housing Authority worked to improve all the Acorn homes. This was done to make the area safer and better for families.

Changes and New Names

During these improvements:

• Acorn 2 was renamed "Town Center Apartments at Acorn."
• Acorn 3 became "Courtyard Apartments at Acorn."
• Acorn 1 was completely taken down. In its place, new two-story family houses were built between Filbert and Market Streets.

City Towers: A Neighboring Community

Right next to Acorn are three tall buildings known as the City Towers. These buildings used to be called Apollo Housing. They look a bit like the tall buildings you might see in big cities like Chicago or New York City.

Why City Towers are Connected to Acorn

Even though City Towers is its own separate housing community, many people think it's part of Acorn. This is because when Acorn was being improved in the 1990s, some families living in Acorn moved to City Towers. Locals often call these buildings "The Highrises."

Music and Community Unity

The Acorn area has a history of local rap artists. Sometimes, there were disagreements between people from Acorn and nearby areas like Cypress Village. To help bring people together and encourage peace, local rappers from both Acorn and Cypress released a special music album in 2003.

The Acorn & Cypress Mixtape

This album was called Acorn & Cypress. It was inspired by other music projects that aimed to unite different communities. Since then, a rap label from West Oakland called Livewire Records has signed many artists from both Acorn and Cypress. One well-known artist from Acorn is Shady Nate. The founder of Livewire Records, J Stalin, is from Cypress Village.

Acorn in Movies and TV Shows

The Acorn housing projects have appeared in popular entertainment.

"Set It Off" Movie Scenes

The 1996 movie "Set It Off" featured several scenes filmed at the Acorn Housing Projects. This movie starred famous actors like Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Vivica A. Fox, Kimberly Elise, and Blair Underwood.

Featured on National Geographic Channel

In 2014, Acorn was shown in an episode of the National Geographic Channel TV show Drugs, Inc.. The episode was called "Cokeland." Parts of it were filmed around the Acorn and City Towers housing areas.