After the New York State Appellate Court ruled that the city has the power to shut down sex shops in residential areas, Brooklyn Community Board 7 in Sunset Park will meet with the police this week to urge them to crack down the sex shops that have popped up recently in the neighborhood.

Jeremy Laufer, district manager of Community Board 7, said that they have been waiting for this ruling for too long. He hopes the police will take swift action after the Appellate Court makes its final ruling. The sex shops have plagued the community for too long, Laufer said.

The Appellate Court ruled on Tuesday that the city can take a rigorous approach when inspecting pornography stores, including book and video stores and topless clubs. The court ruled unanimously that the city is entitled to enforce the law to ensure public health, safety and welfare in land and buildings within its jurisdiction.

But lawyers representing the sex industry have already petitioned and have been granted a temporary injunction. The city is prohibited from doing anything before the Supreme Court makes a final ruling.

Tuesday’s ruling has been hailed as a victory for the minority community. Laufer said that sex shops started to pop up in Sunset Park after former mayor Rudolph Giuliani sanitized Times Square. By his own estimate, there are 20 to 24 sex shops of various kinds, including video stores and topless clubs in the area, most of them concentrated on Third Avenue. Laufer believes that some of these establishments are in clear violation of existing laws, which are not permitted to be located within 500 feet of other stores, schools and churches. Because of the high concentration of sex shops, he said, the area is known for hookers hanging around street corners and stores passing out sex service flyers, all within easy access for students.

Laufer’s office receives complaints from residents almost on a daily basis. Some sex shops openly entice adolescents and parents have complained about teenagers hanging in the vicinity of the stores.

Councilman Vincent J. Gentile (D-Brooklyn), who represents Bay Ridge, is happy with the ruling. He said that the sex shops are detrimental to the community and hopes the ruling will bring an end to the problem.

But Paul Mak, president of the Brooklyn Chinese-American Association, doubts the ruling will change anything. According to Mak, the city has designated Third Avenue to be a pornographic area and no ruling will change that. The Association held a rally a few years ago protesting the sex shops in the area, but there has been no sign of the sex shops disappearing.