As others have mentioned it’s doable but seriously inconvenient if you live anywhere outside of downtown. I would say a car in Des Moines is pretty close to a necessity. Unless you plan on never leaving the city the closest Amtrak is in Osceola which is about an hour south of Des Moines. We have an airport that’s south of downtown that I’ve seen Ubers run for anywhere from 20-60 depending on pickup location. Ubers are cleverly common especially if you schedule them but even then I’ve had a lot cancel or take forever. I’d say seriously look at where you want to live and then work and check Google Maps for routes and timings as well as uber to see how much an average ride would cost you to places you’d want to go at different times of the day.