The project, said Mayor Gavin Newsom, "harnesses the creativity of San Francisco's artist community to help improve the quality of life and the business climate in our neighborhood commercial districts ... bringing new energy to the area."

After Friday's launch of the storefront art installations on Market Street and on Taylor Street in the Tenderloin, plans are set to expand to Third Street in the Bayview next week and 24th Street in the Mission next month.

The focus Friday was on mid-Market, a corridor pocked with open-air drug dealing, public drunkenness and numerous boarded-up businesses. Stores selling electronics and art supplies are next to pawn dealers and porn dens. A major playhouse and a big-draw music venue share the street.

City officials envision that the art installations, to be viewed from the street, will become destinations and create a more savory scene. That, in turn, may make the neighborhoods more attractive for economic development.

Luis Cancel, director of cultural affairs for the San Francisco Arts Commission, said this is not a Potemkin-village project in which blemishes are simply covered up with facades.

Instead, he said, "It's a way to have art confront long-standing and stubborn problems to create change."

The mid-Market component, tucked between Fifth and Eighth streets, coincides with the city's efforts to reduce traffic congestion with new driving restrictions in the area. The goal there is to make the stretch more inviting for pedestrians.

Whether the trials will succeed is still unknown. There have been numerous initiatives over the years to improve the neighborhood.

The city's Office of Economic and Workforce Development helped persuade property owners to donate the space at least through the end of January, and is working with the arts commission and community groups on the project.

Nearly 200 artists applied to create artwork for the vacant storefronts in the four neighborhoods. Organizers asked that the projects be relevant to the location's culture and history.

A mixed-media installation at 986 Market St. created by Alexis Amann and Jonathan Burstein, for example, is titled, "Don't Give Up the Ship." The Arts Commission describes it as a reflection of the current economic climate - "underwater homeowners" (and) "loan sharks" - and climate change.

Across the street, artist Paul Hayes crumpled up about 5,000 pieces of white copy paper, some laid on the floor to reflect discarded ideas and others used to create life-size figures that hang above to show "that something can be created out of nothing, just like these empty storefronts."

Sally Martin, a 19-year-old barista in the neighborhood, watched as Art in Storefronts workers prepared for the unveiling Friday afternoon and city crews cleaned the streets before the official opening.

She was intrigued but skeptical that art will spark major improvements. "The problems are so deep here," she said. "At least if it doesn't work I'll have something to look at when I walk to work."

Learn more about the art installations: links.sfgate.com/ZILP

E-mail Rachel Gordon at rgordon [at] sfchronicle [dot] com.