Show and Tell Contest

I disagree. i think it is telling because it draws a conclusion for the reader. If you show me what the character sees I shoudl be in the same sort of place as him. Obviously there's a degree of licence here, you can add things for voice or personal style, but in this case the empty park is a very general observsation that could be viewed in an any number of ways (loneliness, depression, new possibilities, hope, desolation etc) and the writer then tells us emphatically how we should be reacting to it.

I think writer's are going to do that to some extent, but hopefully without the reader realising they are being guided to think a certain way, and the best writing won't need to. Here it felt very obvious that the text was jumping quickly ahead to tell us what it had not really convinced us of yet (and in this particular case I think there was ample opportunity to create a serene vista for the reader to get his affection for nature and its soothing effect on him).

My tuppeny's worth