The UC Berkeley and Field Poll results show the state's lowest rating in almost 20 years.
"'Residents are reconsidering the image of the Golden State and showing more ambivalence toward it,' said Jack Citrin, a Berkeley political science professor who co-wrote the report. 'The changes going on - socially, culturally, economic - have made people here less Pollyannaish about the reality of life here.'
The poll, based on a telephone survey of 898 registered voters in February, showed that only 39 percent considered the state 'one of the best places to live,' compared with the glory days of 1985, when 78 percent gave the state the highest rating."
