OAKLAND — After 16-year-old LoEshe Lacy was shot to death in 1997 in West Oakland, her father vowed to use her name — which means “Love Life” in the Nigerian language Ibo — as a declaration against violence.

For more than 17 years, Donald Lacy and his friends urged the city to adopt “love life” as its official motto, in an effort to both pay homage to LoEshe and to denounce violence. Despite opposition from some people — most notably Mayor Libby Schaaf — the City Council approved the motto. And last week, new welcome signs were installed along Oakland’s borders with the motto painted in the bottom left corner.

The signs have given Lacy a sense comfort in that they carry on his daughter’s ethos of nonviolence. Months before she died, a friend of hers was killed, Lacy said. She told her father at the time that she wanted to speak out against violence in the city.

“It’s really more than my legacy, it’s her’s,” Lacy said. “It’s not just for her, it’s for everybody who has been killed in our city, or anybody that has been killed anywhere. This is a reminder that we haven’t forgotten you and we want people to reconsider their violent actions.”

LoEshe was not the intended target of the shooting, but rather caught in the crossfire of a gang turf war. One man — 16 at the time — was convicted in the shooting; Lacy says he confessed to the crime after feeling bad that LoEshe was unintentionally killed.

Lacy founded and operates the Love Life Foundation, a nonprofit that works with teens to produce public service announcements, put on plays and carry out other nonviolence campaigns.

Lacy caught the attention of City Council member-at-large Rebecca Kaplan in 2000, before she was elected to the council. Kaplan went to a council meeting at the time to speak about affordable housing and was moved by his story.

At the sign unveiling ceremony Oct. 16, Kaplan praised Lacy and the motto’s supporters for their passion in getting it approved: They frequently requested the motto during open forums at the beginning of council meetings.

“I’m so proud of him and everybody who has fought for this to show that we will not be about revenge; that even in the face of the most horrifying loss, we will still say that we’re going to make something better,” Kaplan said.

Council member Lynette Gibson McElhaney championed a resolution to make Love Life the city’s motto with the support of Kaplan and council member Desley Brooks. In April 2016, the council voted 5-3 to approve the resolution. Brooks, Kaplan and McElhaney voted in support along with Noel Gallo and Larry Reid. Abel Guillen, Dan Kalb and Annie Campbell Washington voted against it.

Hundreds of people showed up at the meeting on behalf of the motto, Lacy said.

“There are precious occasions when you get to carry legislation that is so meaningful to wounded people,and to those who have suffered harm” McElhaney said. “When I agreed to carry the legislation, I didn’t really realize it had been a 20-year campaign for this piece. It was so gratifying to offer the family and the families that have been impacted by violence this powerful, symbolic victory, to say ‘We’re listening.’ ”

Schaaf, in an email sent to council members before the April 2016 meeting, expressed concern that the motto “without context or story could mean many things, some not all appropriate as our city’s motto.” Experts working for Bloomberg Associates, a nonprofit that issues advice to city governments, told Schaaf the motto’s background “reinforces the very crime issues” the city is fighting, that tying the motto with a particular foundation sets a “dangerous precedent” and that a similar slogan has been used by several anti-choice campaigns, the email said.

LoEshe’s childhood friend, Tanisha Silas, said the motto is more of a call to have fun and enjoy life, something LoEshe would have appreciated.

“That’s something that people need to do, value life,” Silas, 35, said. “It seems like it’s not like that anymore. When we were kids we loved life, we always played around and had fun. It’s just different now; it’s not the same love. The motto brings it back to what it’s supposed to be.”

Lacy hopes it will prompt people to think twice before doing something violent.

“To me, part of the problem with why America is so violent is that we’re inundated with violent messages, and hate speech,” Lacy said. “It’s time to start putting out a different message. This is just one little link in that chain. We need to start promoting the higher ideas of love, decency and respect. … Let’s start singing a different song.”