Vegas a city of tolerance for ‘Sister Wives’ star

Hundreds of thousands of us have moved to Las Vegas over the years, but few of us have done so under the watchful eye of TMZ. Nearly five years ago, when Kody Brown, 47, moved his family — wives Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robyn and their 16 children (a 17th was born here) — to Las Vegas, it was to avoid the threat of bigamy prosecution in Lehi, Utah. But the Browns have found more than sanctuary in Las Vegas; they’ve found a home. With the sixth season of their reality show, “Sister Wives,” kicking off at 9 p.m. Sunday on TLC, Brown looks back on the move and some of what he loves about his new home.

Review-Journal: When you first got here, what kind of reception did you and your family receive?

Brown: We got here, and we were kind of hat in hand. We were basically just hoping that we’d get a lot more tolerance and acceptance. … My image of Las Vegas was that tolerance would override. That it was just going to be an accepting community. Kind of ‘Hey, listen. This is Sin City, so we don’t judge anybody.’

Review-Journal: Has the reaction in the community changed since you’ve been here?

Brown: I think from the time we got here until now, we’ve found a generally tolerant community. I think it’s been pretty accepting. You know, I don’t walk around asking people, ‘Hey, are you tolerating me?’ or anything like that. (Laughs) We just find friends, and it works. We live in a little cul-de-sac with neighbors, and that seems real easygoing.

Review-Journal: What’s surprised you most since moving to Las Vegas?

Brown: How small the business community is. It feels like you’re one degree of separation from everybody that is doing business in Las Vegas. Whether you’re in real estate, whether you’re working on the Strip, whether you’re working construction, it seems like a small business community that way.

Review-Journal: Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Brown: That’s a really good thing, I think. We know a lot of people who seem to know everybody. It’s amazing to us when we’re doing business with somebody, how they always know somebody else we’re doing business with.

Review-Journal: What do you do when you want a night out?

Brown: Sometimes, I feel like I’m a prisoner of the cul-de-sac. (Laughs.) I work all day with my family, then if I’m tired, I sit down and I rest there. And I don’t really get out of the house much. But when I do wanna get away, once in a while it’s a movie. I guess one of the things that would surprise you about Vegas, if I was to backtrack a little bit, is when you go to a casino to eat and to see a movie and to shop, you’re really not going to a casino. You’re really just going to a business area that just happens to have a casino in it.

Review-Journal: What would you say is the best thing about being a Las Vegan?

Brown: Just the sense of tolerance. It’s like, listen, ‘You live your life and it’s cool. We know you love your kids.’ … It’s a community that just says, ‘Hey, you do your thing, and you do it, and just make sure you’re being honest in your business.’ I just like Las Vegans for their tolerance. … I have to travel to L.A. and I have to travel to New York quite frequently, and the food in New York and L.A. do not compare with the food at a good place in Las Vegas. … You’ve got great places like Red Rock for hiking. Lone Mountain. Going out to Mount Charleston. Just great hiking. One more thing, it feels like every three miles, there’s a city park. I guess because nobody has grass, the city provides it. I can go north, south, east or west a mile and find a really nice family park. That’s another amazing thing about Vegas.

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com. On Twitter: @life_onthecouch