Harvard professor Danielle Allen told a West Newton audience Thursday, Oct. 8 that they hold the tools to fix what she called an ailing democracy.

Allen, director of the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation at the Harvard Kennedy School, spoke at the Allen Center on Webster Street at a forum titled "Democracy, if we can Keep It." The event was hosted by the Newton Beacon ahead of the November elections, according to a Newton Beacon report by Briana Leibowicz Turchiaro.

Allen proposed fighting corruption through transparency, widening suffrage, strengthening civic education and supporting professional local news organizations as paths to democratic health. She described herself as obsessively focused on making democracy work.

High school journalists pressed Allen with questions of their own. Student reporters from Newton North and Newton South high schools questioned Allen during the talk. Allen compared the grilling to a dissertation defense.

Grace Yang, a senior at Newton South High School and co-editor of the school paper The Lion's Roar, said she pushes classmates to participate in journalism as a gateway to civic life. Her co-editor, Bethesda Yeh, also a senior, said professional outlets covering local news alongside student reporters strengthens the local journalistic environment.

Yang said she tries to counter misinformation among her peers by reminding 18-year-old friends to vote.

Isaac Fine, a former Newton Beacon board member with three children, said he worries about where his kids get their news. "I know they get news and they stay up with current events," Fine said. "I don't know the sources of it, though."

Newton Beacon editor Bryan McGonigle asked Allen how to build civic engagement in a city where some residents leave because they cannot afford rent.

Allen's answer was blunt. "Housing is a democracy issue," she said.

Newton resident Davut Habip, who previously hosted robotics events for students in Turkey, said the forum reinforced the value of engaging young people early. Newton Centre resident Enrique Rosero also posed questions during the session. Audience members raised ideas including electoral college reform, shifting journalism to a nonprofit model and improving housing affordability.

A Pew Research Center report published in April found that 69% of U.S. adults said they are dissatisfied with the way democracy is working, up 7 percentage points from the prior year.

Allen, a 2020 Library of Congress Kluge Prize winner, also chairs the Coalition for Healthy Democracy, a Massachusetts-based organization. The Allen Center, at 35 Webster St. in West Newton, was originally the home of 19th-century abolitionist Nathaniel T. Allen. The Newton Cultural Alliance opened it as a cultural venue in 2021.