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Minneapolis is overall a nicer, more classically urban, and more aesthetically-appealing city than Denver. I'd probably put Denver at the bottom of this list. Portland is also overall very nice, but it's a smaller metro and is in some ways a much sketchier city in terms of homelessness and petty crime. Portlanders seem to think they have superior biking infrastructure compared to Minneapolis, which I found to be untrue.
I've been to all three, but Minneapolis was a long time ago and I only really saw the downtown. While Portland had more quirky businesses, interesting topography and nature, and prettier houses and residential streets, Denver felt like more of a "real" city, with solid mass transit, an active downtown with a lot of high-rises, and the suburban-looking neighborhoods didn't start until farther out from downtown than they did in Portland.
My caveat is I have never lived in the TC metro, but have visited extensively. I lived in Golden, which is somewhat of a suburb of Denver (disjointed due to the table mountains, but most consider it a suburb). I am currently in Portland.
Portland has too many crazies for me personally. Homelessness is a huge problem there, and I'm not at all a fan of their mayor who allows ANTIFA members to riot and destroy things without police confrontation. Beautiful city and especially state, but some of the people there alone would turn me off completely to moving there. It's also getting pricier there, though it's probably roughly close to the COL in Denver.
Both Denver and Portland got their gentrification flood of boring white people with money in the last decade...degrading a lot of the "hip", edgy, ~hipster~ vibe. Both are still cool cities, but just kind of generic. For this reason, I'd put Minneapolis at the top for it's social scene. (Live in Denver, love it, but it's not what it used to be).
It's also hard to compare these cities because Denver and Portland have mountain access, and Minneapolis is in the Midwest. When I lived in Minneapolis, I always found stuff to do and spent a lot of my time climbing and cycling. Bike trails in MSP are superior to the other two cities, but the climate turns a lot of people off.
Food and beer are pretty adequate in all three places. I wouldn't say any are better than the others.
Traffic and transit are all pretty equal.
Cost of living is surprisingly pretty much the same with Minneapolis being the lowest. Minneapolis has higher wages and lower housing costs. Denver would lose for housing because it seems to suffer from the lowest wages with the highest home prices.
Weather would depend on what one prefers and is completely subjective. Minneapolis and Denver have a high amount of sunny days. Denver and Portland have mild winters. Minneapolis and Portland have more of a true 4 season climate.
For downtown/nightlife there is a slight edge to Minneapolis with Denver very close behind. Portland is very good, but just a little smaller and slower in comparison. Portland also loses on major sports teams (if one cares about that).
All in all, I think these 3 cities do their job perfectly well for their regions.
As far as a "ease of life" factor, this goes to Minneapolis hands down. Great economy, great schools, stable population, easy COL, and the city has been doing a good job investing into long term growth initiatives. Denver and Portland have just been too turbulent and their insane spikes of COL and population displacement haven't been easy on the residents.
Denver and Mpls are both more rounded cities than Portland and they feel more like true cities. I would put Denver and especially Mpls closer to Seattle than Portland.
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