The panel was rounded out by Miami historian and author Arva Moore Parks and Gregory Stuart, executive director of Broward’s Metropolitan Planning Organization.

The jurors also elected to give a special honorable mention to Emerge Miami, a grassroots group whose videos, some shot as members pedaled their bikes, documented five emerging blocks and streets in the city’s urban core.

The jurors were charmed by the group’s spirited depictions of inner-city neighborhood streets ranging from Wynwood, Little Haiti and Allapattah to the new mixed-use and pedstrian-friendly Midtown Miami development, as well as the ongoing makeover of the Design District.

They were especially taken by the group’s video of the 5500 block of Northeast Second Avenue in Little Haiti, which is shared by colorful immigrant shop fronts, the punk-music pub Churchill’s, and the indie Sweat Records store with its eye-catching, multi-ethnic street mural of popular music icons.

In recognizing Emerge Miami, the jurors said they wanted to spotlight the budding, if still-incomplete, revitalization of once-neglected South Florida neighborhoods by residents, artists and activists, as well as developers like Goldman. He was a pioneer in the preservation of New York’s SoHo, South Beach, and the principal force behind the emergence of the Wynwood warehouse zone as a hip, street-mural-bedecked arts district.

“There’s this whole other thing going on where people are taking blocks that are not fancy, like those warehouses, and trying to get something started,’’ Dover said.

Like other jurors, Dover noted that urban revitalization emerged as the theme of the competition: Every winning block had experienced a period of considerable decline before undergoing a transformation.

To drive the point home, the awards were handed out at a public event attended by more than 70 people in the middle of a collection of dazzling outdoor murals that Goldman commissioned world-class graffiti artists to paint. Goldman, who died last month, had agreed to help judge the best block contest before falling ill.

“My dad spent his life making some of our country’s best blocks,’’said his daughter and successor, Jessica Goldman Srebnick, who hosted the event. “I know somewhere he’s smiling because this award was named after him.’’

The jurors expressed one disappointment: that Broward was shut out. Although Broward has numerous meritorious blocks and streets, including Hollywood Boulevard and Fort Lauderdale’s Las Olas Boulevard, they said photo and video entries from the county did not match the level of the winning submissions.

The Herald and El Nuevo Herald sponsored the competition in partnership with WLRN/Herald News, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and The Townhouse Center, a nonprofit that promotes redevelopment of urban neighborhoods through construction of human-scaled, multi-use buildings.

Citing public interest and participation, Herald managing editor Rick Hirsch and Townhouse Center director Andrew Frey said the best block competition will likely return next year, with the hope of surpassing this year’s 170 entries and highlighting streets not represented in the submissions.

The aim was to showcase the best urban streets in the region, and identify what makes them work, as South Floridians flock to the region’s reviving downtowns, city neighborhoods and suburban town centers for fun, work and commerce. Submissions were judged on several criteria, including a block’s friendliness to pedestrians, the architecture of its buildings and the mix of activities it hosts, and, in the photo and video categories, for quality of presentation as well.