Welcome, Paul!

If you’re like us, you’re excited to get to know PNTY’s new Executive Director, Paul Steely White. Our ever-curious Director of Development, Linden, sat down with Paul to learn more about what drives him and what he’s loving about his new community.

Linden: I know I’ve said it before, but welcome, Paul! It’s now been just over two weeks for you at Parks & Trails New York. What’s been your highlight so far?

Paul: You’re opening with a tough one! Honestly, I’ve been so amazed and overwhelmed joining this phenomenal community… the supporters, the partners, the fellow advocates, the staff and Board… it’s hard to choose. I would have to say that participating in Park Advocacy Day my first week with the organization was such a gift. It was a perfect introduction to who we are and what gives us our ability to make such an enormous impact.

During my time with Transportation Alternatives, advocacy always felt like a fight. You were fighting to claw back public space from cars and re-scale it towards people. I am very proud of what we accomplished, but it was a slog. Park Advocacy Day felt different— there was more common ground with legislators than I’m used to. It’s partly the powerful issue– everyone loves parks, especially now– but mostly the powerful messengers, the Friends groups and other advocates who have an infectious passion for, and pride in, their local parks and public lands. And you could really see that passion making a difference with legislators.

Advocating with the Friends groups I started to wonder, “where does this passion come from?” I quickly discovered that it comes from spending years with their local places digging into the culture, history, community. John Brown Farm, Fillmore Glen, Planting Fields, Letchworth, Mills at Staatsburgh... these and the other 70+ Friends groups are so proud, so keen to showcase their amazing places to the world, to really connect with others around treasured outdoor space. That’s the wellspring. It’s hard to not be fed, excited, and inspired by that! I mean, you’ve got this diverse array of groups from across the state, and they all have very unique offerings that are incredibly local, but they are all connected in their purpose and passion for New York State’s world class system of green spaces.

I have so many invites for places to visit—and great people to meet or reconnect with. I can’t wait!

Linden: You mentioned working for Transportation Alternatives and advocating there. Could you share one of the organization’s accomplishments from that time that you’re most proud of?

Paul: First off, I have to emphasize (and then re-emphasize) that those achievements really come down to the movement building—the day-to-day work it takes to build a friendly community of advocates, volunteers, allied groups, donors, government partners. That work began well before I arrived on the scene, and has grown a lot since I left. Building an organization that can move mountains takes patience, but that’s the real accomplishment that makes all the rest possible.

That said, I think I’m really proud of helping to expand public green space for people in NYC: getting the first protected bike lanes; car-free Central and Prospect parks; bike share; the redesign of Queens Boulevard; new greenway and bridge connections; not to mention rides and major events we did with Enrique Pen˜alosa, David Byrne, and Janette Sadik-Khan. I will probably regret mentioning this, but as I was leaving Transportation Alternatives, Streetfilm’s Clarence Eckerson made this super cringy “Paul Steely White Mega Mix” highlight reel. It was so kind, but so embarrassing!
(Interviewer’s note: We did, indeed, find the reel and linked it! Don’t tell Paul.)

Linden: That’s amazing and really necessary, thank you. How did the importance of green space—and communities’ access to it—become a guiding principle of yours?

Paul: I was really lucky to grow up adventuring in the outdoors. My mother directed an Upward Bound Program at a college in southern Utah, and part of her job was taking 50 Hopi, Navajo and rural white highschoolers out for weekend camping trips in the wilderness. I, as a nine-year-old, would tag along. It was magical sleeping by a campfire under the stars. That sense of wonder has stuck with me my whole life.

For me, also, the outdoors and wild places really provided a lot of solace growing up. When you go through tough times, especially as a kid, it’s so healing to have a safe space to go and be by yourself—to yell, play, be sad, whatever you need. As I got older, I realized I wasn’t the only one. You go, you get that time alone… then you meet others who are there for the same reason. That's what builds the movement, the community. You work to make those experiences more accessible for everyone, more common and less rare in your life, and in the lives of others.

Something Senator Serrano said at Park Advocacy Day really resonated with me about public green spaces and how important they are. He said, “Parks were the medicine we needed during the pandemic, not just for our mental and physical health, but for the health of the fabric of our society.” That really struck me—we really do connect around our use and love of these spaces. During the toughest times of the pandemic my wife Zoe and our three kids would escape to Minnewaska State Park and come back home totally restored. Without that, we would have been in a much different place. I’m so grateful to have had a career that allows me to work to build out these opportunities and connections. It’s a gift.

I’m also lucky that I’m able to share that deep, meaningful connection to parks and trails with the next generation. While I still love a quiet walk, I also love hiking, biking and climbing all around Ulster County. It’s definitely less quiet, but also much more fun. We moved up here from NYC a while ago, and I was struck by all of the amazing outdoor spaces available to us—the phenomenal state parks, the Empire State Trail, the list is too long to enumerate! I wondered who had fought for all of this, who was still fighting for it. That’s when I came across Parks & Trails New York… and I guess the rest is history!