By Sylvie Rokab
“We did not come into this world. We came out of it, like a wave from the ocean.”
– Alan Watts
When I had the honor to screen my film Love Thy Nature at the Aero Theatre in 2016 in partnership with Sustainable Works, our sold-out event gave me a sense of the community here: I perceived Santa Monicans to be ecologically conscious, community-oriented, and devoted to social and environmental justice. I was elated. That experience helped bring my desire to move here to fruition.
Sadly, even our conscious city is suffocating under the weight of “progress”: 95% of Santa Monica is now asphalt and concrete. Most children spend their free time hunched over screens. As Americans, our sense of isolation has become so severe that our Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared we’re in an epidemic of loneliness. As if that weren’t enough, we’re painfully witnessing the unraveling of our planetary systems, as the January fires still smolder in our collective memory.
Santa Monica is in a moment of reckoning.
It is the last open space left in our city—and what we do with it will echo for generations to come
Nestled in the heart of our extensive hardscape is a rare sliver of possibility: nearly 200 acres of open public land, soon to be reclaimed after the closure of Santa Monica Airport in 2028. It is the last open space left in our city and what we do with it will echo for generations to come.
Returning this small piece of Santa Monica to the public and restoring it as a natural space is the most powerful action we can take for healing our personal, social, and planetary crises: this could be our Emerald Sanctuary.
Providing access to natural spaces is environmental justice, social justice, and a public health imperative
Regenerating the airport site is a moral issue for our city. Santa Monica has a serious scarcity of natural open space. While the national average is 10.6 acres of parkland per 1,000 residents, our city offers a mere 1.4 acres. With an increasing number of us living in homes without gardens or backyards, providing access to natural spaces is environmental justice, social justice, and a public health imperative.
Studies show that access to nature reduces anxiety and depression—while improving focus, memory, and resilience. Research has also shown that time in nature reduces aggressive tendencies in youth and promotes kindness and collaboration. Time in nature deepens our sense of belonging with each other, our community, and the natural world.
Just imagine – kids leaving their screens behind so they can play together in natural playgrounds; adults gathering to share ideas, art, and music at a small amphitheater; Tongva/Gabrielino elders teaching youth how to grow native medicinal herbs; people playing sports, games, and music; the park’s trees and plants purifying our city’s air with their freshly “exhaled” oxygen.
Our Emerald Sanctuary will offer not only play, well-being, and togetherness—but also a place of beauty, wonder, and awe - reminding us that we belong to something so much bigger than ourselves.
As our city grows and more housing is added, the need for public open space becomes even more urgent. The denser our city becomes, the more nature we need.
Our Great Park makes economic sense. Parks raise nearby property values, improve public health, and revitalize local economies. Thanks to the “Park Effect”, our Great Park would attract a sea of visitors, bringing revenues to our hotels, restaurants, shops, and cultural centers.
The idea of pouring concrete over our Great Park feels as senseless—and as sorrowful—as paving over the beach
Some have proposed building below-market-rate housing on this land. And while affordable housing is vital, justice is not only about putting up walls - it’s also about clean air to breathe, food to grow, places to play, and spaces where community and spirit can be restored. As our city grows, the Great Park offers these essential forms of nourishment.
Parks are not a barrier to equity—they are its roots. In a city starved for nature, new development should rise from the 95% of Santa Monica already paved - not from the rare, open land we so desperately need for healing and regeneration. The idea of pouring concrete over our Great Park feels as senseless - and as sorrowful - as paving over the beach.
If we truly believe in social equity, we must ensure every resident - now and in generations to come - has a chance to walk among trees or under an open sky to rest, heal, play, and find freedom from the demands of modern life.
This land was once respectfully tended by the Tongva/Gabrielino peoples, whose way of life was shaped by relationship, not domination. While governance is complex, we can still honor this land by restoring it in the spirit of sacred reciprocity—planting native species, supporting traditional food and medicine gardens, and welcoming community to deepen our bonds with each other and nature.
This is our one and only chance to transform nearly 200 acres of urban land back to a healthy, vibrant, life-giving ecosystem.
Our Emerald Sanctuary would be medicine for people and planet, bringing to life Santa Monica’s Sustainability Rights Ordinance, which recognizes the rights of nature and the rights of the community as fundamental. It is our duty to safeguard trees, soil, and species to offset what we’ve already lost or is being threatened. A regenerative park would help cool rising temperatures, sequester carbon, manage stormwater, and restore habitat corridors. In essence, the Great Park is a living climate solution.
This is our one and only chance to transform nearly 200 acres of urban land back to a healthy, vibrant, life-giving ecosystem—originally stewarded for millennia by the Tongva/Gabrielino peoples. We can honor their legacy while creating a new one: that of a modern city with visionary leaders who are unafraid to replace a toxic airport with a thriving ecological sanctuary - for the benefit of all beings.
When I offer Q&A sessions after screening Love Thy Nature, I always ask the audience if they can define the core message of the film in just three words. Among Santa Monicans, the answer comes easily. Inevitably someone in the audience offers the answer: “We are nature.” No doubt about it.
As a proud Santa Monican who loves this city deeply, I offer you this invitation: Let us not build over what’s sacred. Let us be rooted into it—and bring more life to our children, our community, and our ecosystem. Let us come together and create our Emerald Sanctuary.
Wishing you Nature. And Love.
Sylvie Rokab
Santa Monica