Des Moines police, residents and Hy-Vee agree: Downtown is getting safer despite a September double homicide in the Court Avenue entertainment district and concerns the grocery chain raised after cutting the hours of its downtown store nearly 10 months ago. Hy-Vee, defending the abrupt change in February, cited what it said were 200 calls to police officers from the store's address in the preceding six months and a string of incidents that endangered employees and customers. Concerns rose again after the Sept. 15 shooting in the 200 block of Water St., on the eastern edge of the district, that left two men dead and one hospitalized. But according to Des Moines police, the number of serious "Part 1" crimes as defined by the FBI, including murder, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and arson, committed on and around Court Avenue dropped 8% from 288 during the first eight months of 2023 to 264 during the same period this year. Tap the link in our bio f...